Avengers: Don't Get in My Way
by Purple Chickie
Summary: The Thanos Conflict and Infinity War are over, but the devastation they caused isn't. Wanda has lost everything, and she intends to get it back, and she won't let anything or anyone get in her way. Its time to put things right
1. Chapter 1

**AN** – This is the first work for the Avengers I've published on this site. Most of my works published here are works of the DC TV shows on the CW. Hopefully you'll consider checking them out. I'm hoping you'll enjoy this one too!

Fair warning, though. I have several health issues that prevent me from keeping a regular schedule of updates. I'll try to update as often as I can, but there may be some more lengthy gaps at times. I hope you'll like taking this ride with me.

_**Avengers: Don't Get in My Way**_

**Chapter 1**

The wind blowing over the lake was chilled, moist and winsome. It was as if Nature itself had been saddened by all the loss the Earth had suffered over the past few years, and wept along with the other attendees of the funeral that had just concluded. A lingering hope hovered over the congregation of friends, family and acquaintances that stood in small clusters, talking and comforting each other. Yet, beneath that hope was also a sense of profound sadness and loss. Thanos' insane mission to bring "balance" by destroying half of all life in the universe caused catastrophic loss and was an enormous waste.

Uncounted trillions in the universe had suffered the same bitter, senseless loss that these people had, the same bitter, senseless loss that _she_ had suffered. Unfortunately, that knowledge did nothing to assuage the gaping holes left in Wanda Maximoff's heart and soul. The trillions upon trillions of those that died after the reversal of the Snap were tragic, of course. The open wounds of her own losses were personal, however. She felt them, sharply and keenly, every single second since the first insane stroke the Mad Titan had taken.

Whatever else she was, Wanda Maximoff was merely human, and she was painfully aware of the tragic flaws that went along with that fact. Despite the knowledge that her plight wasn't unique, she couldn't help being selfish in mourning her own losses more than those of the universe at large. No, this was personal, _very_ personal. It was personal for everyone gathered here outside Tony and Pepper's cabin on the lake. Even then, she still had a more personal grief that cast a shadow over the grief that everyone else was feeling, even if she didn't wish it so, or thought that it was unfair to them. What was fair about losing the only person in the universe that she loved beyond everything else?

The people gathered here were her friends, her family, and she loved them all dearly, even Tony. Though she had hated him for years when they first met, she had come to see him as somewhat of a father figure in an odd sense. Then again, very little made sense where Tony Stark was concerned.

No matter how much she loved this strange and unusual group of friends and family, and was thankful that she still had them, Vision had been her heart and soul. She hadn't truly realized and understood that until he had asked her to see what she could sense from the jewel embedded in his forehead. Sure, she knew she loved him well before then, but that moment truly brought home the depth of those feelings when her mind touched his mind as well as the stone. It was in that briefest of moments that her heart broke down the last wall in her heart that kept her from being able to truly feel love, and allowed herself to be lost in that rapture that true love was.

When he asked what it was that she felt, she had replied, "I just feel you." That had been the truth, as far as what she sensed from his mind and the stone. What she felt from his heart was something else entirely. She could feel the warmth and undeniable truth of his feelings for her as well. She could feel the love that radiated from every fiber of his being. It didn't matter what those fibers were comprised of.

Most called Vision an android, a robot, a machine rather than a man more often than not. He was so much _more_ than that. None of these terms could even _begin_ to describe who and what he was. He was what Tony and Bruce had called him, a synthezoid. Vision was a "synthetic humanoid," a special kind of android that was a replica of the human body.

He had organs, such as a brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and so on that functioned exactly as human organs did. They were simply synthetic rather than organic. Where humans ate food to fuel their bodies, Vision synthesized solar energy to provide the sustenance his body required. He was stronger, faster, and more durable than humans were, and could do things that humans could not, but for all that, he was still a _man_, a man with a heart, capable of feeling and expressing love, compassion, and so much more.

Vision could be very computer like at times. He was often logical, unfettered by the things that often clouded the judgment of humans, and unbiased in his thinking, but there was another side to him, a side that Wanda saw so clearly, and others seemed to always miss. He could also be extremely passionate, loving, caring and possessed of qualities that humans were supposed to embody, yet rarely ever demonstrated. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that Vision loved her as fiercely and completely as she loved him. His heart was true and beat for her, it didn't matter what his heart was made of, whether it was flesh, or synthetic compounds. It was a heart, and it had been hers, just as she had given her own to him. And now…now he was gone, and there was an enormous crater in Wanda where once her heart had lived.

Clint had drifted over to his family, and was talking with a group of their friends once their conversation had drifted into a comfortable silence. Each had consoled the other on their personal losses. Natasha had been more than simply a friend to Clint. She had been a sister to him, and true family to the rest of them. Natasha had been very close to her as well, even if they hadn't always agreed on everything, and her loss was another that Wanda felt all too vividly.

She allowed her gaze to wander over the many faces that surrounded her, until her eyes fell upon little Morgan, Tony and Pepper's daughter. Wanda studied her face for long moments, almost as if time itself stood still for that moment. Her eyes moved upward to Pepper's face, and she recognized the expression she wore, as well as the incredible self control it must have taken to stay as collected as she was. The young woman was convinced that the battle that raged inside the woman to maintain that outward appearance must have been inconceivable.

Wanda moved towards them, and once she was close enough, she knelt down to Morgan's level, and offered her a smile she hoped wasn't too colored with sadness. "You must be Morgan," she said softly as her eyes threatened to spill over with the tears that welled there. She knew what it was like to lose her parents while still a child. Wanda wished so strongly that Morgan didn't have to endure what she had felt herself first hand. Morgan was so young, and so innocent, and it wasn't right for her to have the father that had loved her so deeply and completely taken from her so harshly. _None_ of this was right.

The little girl studied her for a long moment, and then nodded solemnly. "That's right, I'm Morgan," the child replied as her eyes moved over Wanda's face. The eyes of a child more often than not see things that the grown cannot see, and Wanda was aware of that appraisal going on behind the girl's eyes as she looked at her.

"Morgan, honey," said Pepper, looking down at her daughter, and at the kneeling form of Wanda. "This is Wanda. She was a friend of your daddy's. More than a friend, actually. Can you say hi to her?"

Morgan regarded Wanda a moment, and then returned her gaze to the woman kneeling in front of her. She smiled a soft, sad little smile and extended her hand. "Hi. Pleased to meet you, Wanda," she said in very articulated words. Her small voice sounded so strange to Wanda's ears speaking so formally. "You're really pretty. I like your hair."

Wanda blushed at the innocent remark, and the struggle to keep her emotions in check grew suddenly more intense. Her smile returned, however, though she couldn't be sure of how much control she had it under. "Thank you. You're very pretty too. Your father often told me how much he loved you and how proud of you he was. He told all of us," she said finally. The young Sokovian waved her hand around to indicate the friends and family that had gathered for the somber event.

While they were talking, Pepper had caught sight of Happy, and waved him over. Once he was close enough, she tried her best to smile, and asked, "Happy, would you please take Morgan to the porch or inside, and keep her occupied for a while?"

The pleasant but large man gave a knowing nod, and patted the wife of his best friend on the shoulder. "Sure thing, Pepper. I'd be glad to," he answered, then he knelt down beside Wanda, and tugged the little girl to him as he stood once more. "Come on, Little Bit. Let's go see what we can find while Mommy and Wanda talk, what do you think?"

Once they were gone, Pepper rubbed and gripped her hands nervously in front of her, and fought back the tears ready to flood from her eyes. "Thank you for coming, Wanda, and for being so nice with Morgan. I know Tony could be difficult, even infuriating at times, but he truly thought the world of you. You know that, right?"

Wanda nodded softly, and let her eyes follow Happy and Morgan for a moment before meeting Pepper's eyes with her own once more. "It was my honor and privilege, Pepper. I'm so sorry for your loss, for Morgan's loss," she spoke with a rasp to her voice more pronounced than usual. "I know. Tony and I…our relationship didn't start out the best. There were many things that made me feel as I did, but I learned the kind of man that he was. He treated me fairly, even kindly, despite everything that happened. He became a true friend, even though, as you say, he could be difficult at times. That was what made him special, in an odd way, I think. He was certainly unique."

Pepper laughed softly, a sad laugh, but a laugh all the same. "He was special, all right," she said with a wan smile lingering on her lips. "But like you said, that's what made him Tony. There was a side to Tony that I don't think anyone else ever got to see, except for Morgan and me. Not even Happy and Rhodey actually saw much of it, I don't think."

Pepper wiped a tear from her cheek, and sniffed, "But I'm not the only one that lost someone. I know _everyone_ did, but I'm told that you lost someone you loved very deeply as well. Vision?" She paused, and hoped that she hadn't just ripped open a wound that was just starting to heal. "I'm so sorry, Wanda. I only met him a couple of times, but he seemed very special too, very unique. I can only imagine the pain you feel."

"Vision was special, and unique. He was…he was _everything_ to me. Everyone else is important to me, but he…," she quietly spoke as she wiped away tears of her own. It felt like a dam was bursting inside her, and all her feelings were about to come blasting out through the cracks.

"He was your heart," finished Pepper softly as her hand came to rest on Wanda's shoulder. The young woman shuddered at her touch, and the strong façade she had put on was very rapidly deteriorating. Wanda's pain mirrored her own. Sympathy washed over her in a huge wave. Wanda was too young to have to experience losing someone that meant so much to her in such a violent and senseless way.

Wanda nodded rapidly as she choked back further tears, "He was, yes. He was my _home."_ She embraced Pepper suddenly for a couple of heartbeats and then released her. Pepper reciprocated, and she hoped that maybe their grief would feel lessened a little if they shared that burden together.

"I'm sorry, Pepper. Please excuse me. I…I can't…," Wanda said as she wiped more tears from her cheek. Without another word, red energy flowed from her hands, and she shot high into the air, and then arced through the sky away from the funeral until she was out of sight beyond the thick trees on the other side of the lake.

Steve Rogers stood talking with Clint and his family, as well as Bucky and Sam, remembering their fallen friends in sad but fond conversation. There were good times and bad times alike that filled the conversation, and the occasional laugh. Suddenly, Steve looked up as he raised his lemonade to take a drink and followed something with his eyes.

The others noticed, and Clint looked at his wife Laura and the others, then back to the super soldier. "What's up, Cap?" he asked. He wasn't sure what would capture and keep Steve's attention, but whatever it was, it was doing just that.

Steve pointed upwards and nodded in the same direction. "It's Wanda," he replied pensively. "She just left. I'm not sure why, but it doesn't look like it's just being tired and heading home. She looked upset."

Clint groaned and followed Steve's finger and saw Wanda just as she passed out of sight. "Goddamnit," he groaned in a whisper, and then handed his drink to Laura. He kissed her on the cheek, and sighed, "I'm sorry, I'll be back in a few, babe."

Laura smiled wanly as she took his drink, and returned his kiss on the cheek. "Its okay, Clint. She's obviously in a bad place, and could use someone to talk to. She'll listen to you, I think," she called after him as she jogged away from the gathering.

X

Clint brushed aside branches, and stepped across a wooded floor of soft grass, leaves and twigs. His sharp eyes were on the lookout for the young Sokovian woman, as he hoped he'd correctly guessed where she would have gone. He didn't think she would have gone far, really. Where would she have gone, anyway?

The Avengers compound was deserted at that moment, with everyone at the funeral. It would take too long to book a flight and go back to the apartment she and Vision had in Scotland. As far as he knew, she didn't know anyone in Georgia, and he was sure she wouldn't just wander around aimlessly. Where did that leave for her to go? Somewhere deep in the woods next to the lake by Tony and Pepper's house was the only place he could come up with. He hoped he was right.

Clint finally spotted her after several moments of looking around and calling out her name. She was sitting on an old log, far from the edge of the tree line, holding herself and looking down at the ground around her feet. She had no visible reaction to his calls, or his presence from what he could see. "Wanda?" he asked as he sat beside her on the rough log. All around them smelled of soil and leaves.

When she didn't respond, he placed a hand on her shoulder, and gave it a light squeeze. "Hey, kid, I know you're upset, you've got plenty of reason to be. I thought we sort of got each other to a good place, where we could see at least _some_ positive result of all this shit, you know? Come on, talk to me, Wanda," he said with a gentle prod.

Wanda didn't move or speak for a very long few moments. She sat as if she were a stone statue, sitting in a place she didn't belong. Finally, she exhaled long and slow, "What's there to talk about, Clint? No matter how many silver linings you find, they're still inside a cloud." She sniffed loudly, and wiped her nose on a cloth she pulled from her jacket pocket. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to make a scene or cause a disruption. Pepper and I, we talked…talked about Tony, about Vision…and I just couldn't, not anymore. She did nothing wrong, it just _hurts so fucking much._ If we'd continued talking much longer, I would have lost it completely, I think. It's better to get myself under control first."

Clint wrapped his arm around the young woman's shoulders and gave her a light squeeze. "You don't look like you're having much luck in the getting yourself under control department," he said quietly. "It looks like you need a friend to help you pull it back together, and you've got _lots_ of friends waiting back there to help you. You've got lots of _family_ waiting to help you. We've all suffered ridiculous amounts of loss and grief, and we all help keep each other together. That means you, too."

Wanda nodded lightly as she drew her arms tighter around herself. "I know. This isn't an attention getting attempt, or being some sort of prima donna, Clint. I'm trying so hard to be strong enough to stand there and talk about it, to remember it, to be thankful for the fact that at least this many of us survived, but I _can't._ I just can't. Not right now," her voice dropped to barely a whisper. "I know others have lost just as much as I have, I know Pepper and Morgan have lost as much as I have…"

"But your grief and loss is harder for you to bear because its _yours._ I get it, Wanda, I really do. When the Snap happened, and Laura, Lila, Cooper and Nathaniel were suddenly just _gone,_ my whole family gone like they were never there at all, I lost it. I did things…things too horrible to think about, let alone talk about," he said as he tried to catch her gaze.

"Everybody lost somebody close to them, and yeah, it definitely sucks ass. It's tragic. But even though I knew that, I couldn't see past my own pain and loss to help anybody else out with theirs. Instead, I became a murderer, a savage that destroyed people in as painful a way as possible, using my own grief as fuel. I became a monster. That's all part of being human, though. If you were calm and able to process all this shit rationally while the wounds are this raw, you wouldn't be human," he finished as he gave her shoulders another squeeze.

A long silence fell over them as Wanda appeared to be absorbing his words. A deeply thoughtful expression came to her face, and finally, she looked up at him for the first time, "I think maybe I am becoming a monster too. When I came back after the Snap was reversed, something was _different_. Something had _changed_ inside me, something primal."

Clint frowned at her, trying to understand whatever it was that she was trying to tell him. "What do you mean 'changed' Wanda?" he asked as he turned to better meet her gaze with his own. "What changed?"

She thought about the question for long moments, and then spoke, as she appeared to be looking through him, instead of at him, "I felt…strong. I felt more powerful. It was like I was a phone that was almost dead, and then suddenly completely recharged. I was able to do things that I wasn't before. I hurt Thanos, directly and by myself. I had affected him before, but this…this was something else entirely. He looked at me, and where once there had been contempt, it had been replaced with genuine _fear._ I hurt him worse than I realized, and it frightened him."

"Yeah, you really did a number on him. That was when the tide turned, Wanda. That's when we really started gaining ground back," the archer said as he gave Wanda's shoulder another squeeze.

"It's more than just that, though," she continued, keeping her gaze leveled at him. "Right now, I can almost…_feel_ Viz, but its more than just that. I know it's crazy, but I think…maybe…maybe I can feel the stones. The stones from _this_ time that Thanos destroyed. It may be something else, but I can feel Viz, like I could feel him before Thanos' goons attacked us in Scotland. The way I felt him when he asked me to see what I could sense about the stone. I felt it, I felt its energy and power, but I felt him more. I can feel that…somehow…right now."

Clint blinked at her a few times, unable to immediately speak. He knew she was powerful, and that she had powers he couldn't even _begin_ to understand, not even compared to guys like Thor and the Hulk. Finally, he decided that he should try and get her to mellow out a little, and to keep a close eye on her. Wanda could be impulsive, even to the point of being brash and reckless, when she was emotional, and right now she was _very_ emotional. Right now, she was hurt, but she was also _pissed off._ That wasn't a good way to be for her, not right now.

"Hey, we can talk about this later, okay? It's too important to talk about it out here. We need to relax, take it easy for a while, and then tackle it with a fresh mind," he stated as he stood, and offered her a hand to help her stand. "Come on back with me. You can come out to the house with Laura, the kids and me. You're welcome to stay as long as you want or need to."

She regarded him in silence a moment, as if she were reading his very soul. She took his hand finally, and stood up, then dusted her clothes off. "Okay," she answered simply. It was like she was exhausted, and didn't know how to keep fighting the battle that had been raging inside her all that time.

Hawkeye breathed a quiet sigh of relief. With her in tow, he blazed the trail for them to return to Tony and Pepper's house, and a quiet discussion between himself and his wife.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Avengers: Don't Get in My Way**_

**Chapter 1**

"The kid's in a bad place, Laura. She needs…I don't know _what_ she needs, exactly. But I do know she needs _something_ and she needs to find a way to make peace within herself, otherwise she's just going to implode upon herself, you know?" asked Clint as he glanced back over his shoulder. Wanda was standing by the lake side again, under a tree, apart from everyone and staring off across its surface as if looking into another world. All around them, their teammates and others they knew were still talking, and she seemed separate from them in some way the archer couldn't explain.

Laura Barton nodded softly as her gaze followed her husband's over his shoulder. Without taking her eyes off the young Sokovian, she laid a hand on Clint's bicep and gave it a gentle squeeze. "She's in a _lot_ of pain, Clint. You don't have to have some sort of special powers, or even to know her intimately, to see that," she replied. Her hand came up to indicate everyone around them. "You _all_ are in a lot of pain. However, from what you've told me in the past, and what I've seen on TV, her being in so much pain is dangerous, not just to you guys, or anyone else she might come across, but herself as well, herself especially."

Clint closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath before opening his eyes to his wife once more. "Yeah, I know. I'm worried about her, babe. With that much power, she can't afford to be as out of whack as she is right now. She's a really good kid. She's got a huge heart, she's kind, she's smart…hell, she's a lot like _you_," he retorted. He knew Laura was thinking, he could see it in her face. He just hoped she wasn't misinterpreting his motives, or thinking that Wanda was too big a danger to try and help. "Not like you like _that_, I mean. Just she reminds me a lot of you…and Nat."

Natasha Romanov had at one time been a target that Clint had been sent to eliminate, which was a "politically correct" way of saying she was a mark for assassination, which was ironic when you considered the fact that among Natasha's own resume was the fact that she was one of the top assassins in the world. She was a danger, a "threat to the free world" they had told him. They made her sound as if she were some sort of extinction event that would wipe out mankind or something, all by herself. She was good, Clint knew, but _nobody_ was _that_ good. No one, not him, not her, not any one person was that good. He went into the mission thinking that there were better ways to handle this "problem" other than killing a young woman with obviously exceptional skills, skills that he himself possessed.

Instead of killing her, he'd decided on a different path. He spoke with her, reasoned with her, and convinced her that she could do a lot more good in the world working with them, instead of against them. Of course, it wasn't simply as easy as doing that. They'd fought, they'd gone toe to toe for some time, and neither could quite get the upper hand on the other, not and keep it for long enough for it to matter. In the end, though, his words had gotten through her enigmatic façade, and had resonated within her in some way, because she ended up joining them. SHIELD had gained a _highly_ proficient operative, and Clint had gained something far more useful; a friend.

Over the following years, their friendship had grown, and as it did, he got to see glimpses of the sort of person Natasha Romanov actually was. He got to see _her_, not just the face she put up for the world, the mask she wore so well that she herself had come to believe the image she conveyed. Clint discovered the depths of honor, duty, and loyalty that lay hidden beneath the cool elite operative exterior. He discovered the kindness, the selflessness, and the capacity to care that she kept buried under the identity she had built for herself, and in the process, he discovered a woman that he was happy to not only call a friend, but that had become like a sister to him.

Eventually, his entire family came to view her as a member of their family. She was the "cool aunt" that spoiled the kids incessantly, the sister that both Clint and Laura knew they could depend on, and the friend that Laura could talk to when she couldn't even talk to Clint. Laura knew that Clint had loved her as fiercely as he loved her, not romantically, but just as strongly. There was a brother and sisterly bond between them that had weathered many things that would have torn most siblings apart, but not them.

Laura could see the same sort of connection and bond forming between her husband and the young Eastern European girl. Most women might have felt jealousy, or at least have had concerns for the possibility that something else was going on, but Laura felt pride for the man she loved. Clint projected an image of a no nonsense, hardcore paramilitary operative, a stone faced individual some might say, but she knew the teddy bear he was underneath. It gave her comfort knowing that even with the horrors of the life he led, he still managed to hold on to his faith and humanity, as well as that big heart of his. In many ways, Clint was one of the prongs of the anchor that held this group of extraordinary people together. He helped keep them _human_.

She smiled and lightly slapped Clint on the shoulder. "I know you don't mean like _that_ you silly man," she said with a soft brief laugh. "I think she needs a family right now, just from the look in her eyes that I see whenever she turns our way. Besides, you do have a thing about picking up strays, dear. Strays can make for the best company most of the time. So, yes of course she can come to the house, and she can stay as long as she wants to or needs to. She's welcome."

The bowman smiled lightly and kissed his wife on the cheek briefly. "Thanks, babe. Just wanted to be sure."

X

"Hey, Wanda, how are you feeling?" asked the voice of Steve Rogers. Wanda had been staring across the lake, not really focused on anything external. All her thoughts, all her concentration, were inward. The man out of time stood a couple of paces behind the young woman, waiting for her to turn before speaking further, or moving any closer.

The young woman called by the name Scarlet Witch stood still for a moment, and then slowly turned to face the man speaking to her. Her red rimmed eyes burned with both grief and rage, though she directed neither towards her friend. She breathed out slowly, letting it drag on for several seconds. "Nothing good," she replied in a quiet raspy voice. The words were cold, and yet still had some venom to them.

Steve knew that her tumultuous emotions weren't centered on him, so he took it for what it was. He stuck his hands in his pockets and sighed softly in empathy. "I know this is all unbelievably hard for you. It seems like the punches just keep coming, no matter how many you dodge or block," he said with a genuine tone of sympathy. "We've lost a lot, all of us have. _You've_ lost a lot. These are wounds you can't just slap a Band-Aid on and call it a day. These are wounds that have to heal on their own, and that takes time.

"We're your family now. You've always got us to lean on, and our ears to bend when you want or need to. We're here, always, when you need us." Steve fell silent again, and regarded the young woman, hoping his words helped in some way. He knew words could never fix what happened, what was lost, but hopefully they could provide some small measure of comfort.

"I know, and thank you," she answered as her gaze rose from the ground to his face. "This is all so…I know how this must seem, how _I_ must seem to everyone. I mourn for Tony, I do. That's why we're all here. My grief is divided, and it doesn't seem fair to everyone else. I don't know how to stop feeling it, though."

Steve's brows furrowed and he tilted his head slightly. His hands came up to lightly grasp Wanda's shoulders and he held them for a moment so he could catch her attention and her gaze. "Wanda, listen to me a second, okay?" he began. "No one here thinks you're being selfish or whatever you want to call it. Pepper lost Tony, Morgan lost Tony, and they're grieving, yes. Everyone here lost Tony and they are all grieving, but do you think Pepper's grief is any less important because she's not the only one feeling that loss? Do you think that she feels like she's being unfair or selfish because her grief isn't theirs? Everyone's loss is personal to them, and that includes yours."

The wind blew past them from over the lake, and it was a bit chilly and crisp, a perfect metaphor for the general mood. Steve pressed on, "We lost a lot more than just Tony, and we grieve for them as much as we do for him. It doesn't matter that we're here, at his funeral. We're still allowed to feel _all_ our grief for everyone, no matter where we are. Everyone's grief is unique, and everyone's grief is personal, even when that grief is shared. For all of us, losing Tony is the loss of a friend, or a brother, or however someone felt about him. Pepper's loss is that of her husband, of someone she loved with everything she had." The super soldier stopped a moment to see if she was actually listening to and absorbing his words or if she had slipped into her own thoughts.

It seemed as if she was with him so far, so he continued, "Losing Nat was like losing a sister for most of us. I think Bruce feels her loss more keenly and probably from a different perspective than the rest of us, because she and he were _more_ than simply friends or family. There was something building there, an emotional connection beyond what everyone else shared with her. We lost Vision, and again, for most of us, it was like losing a brother or something like that, but for _you?_ Losing Vision was something else entirely for you. Someone would have to be blind to not have seen that. No matter what anybody else in the world thought, thinks, or might think, he loved you as deeply as you did him. How can you possibly turn that on and off because it doesn't seem 'fair?' You _can't, _that's part of what that love is all about."

Wanda listened, even as much as it hurt just to think about it, and considered what he was saying. It felt good to know that at least Steve and Clint seemed to understand what she was going through, if not first hand, at least in concept. It felt good to at least have her feelings validated so she wouldn't keep feeling guilty for her grief being focused on someone other than just Tony. She was glad someone didn't feel she was being selfish because her grief was so strong for someone other than the person's funeral that they were all attending.

"Thank you, Steve," she said finally after some self reflection. Coming to grips with everything, especially with her feelings about Vision, and how they had just came into focus and she realized the strength and depth of those feelings just days before he was killed, was difficult at best. "It feels good that all of you…that you…consider me family enough to worry about me, even though you don't have to."

"Of course we have to," retorted Steve with a light smile as he hugged her gently for a moment before letting her go. "It's what family does. Remember that." He gave her a light squeeze on the shoulder, and then gave a nod as he moved back to those he'd been speaking with earlier.

X

The ride out to Clint and Laura's farm had been breathtaking from the windows of the quin jet. The surrounding area was beautiful, lush and green, very different from the stark relief of the large cities. Physically and emotionally exhausted once they arrived, she had said her thank you's, met the kids, had a quick dinner and went to bed. She slept deeply, but fitfully, reliving the nightmare of what had happened again in the twisted perception of her dreams.

She awoke an hour or so after sunrise, she imagined, and the house was still and quiet. She moved to the window and looked outside. The yard was deserted, none of the kids were in sight, and the truck was gone. The old blue tractor stood under the shed and looked like it hadn't been used in at least a week. It was eerily quiet.

Once she was dressed, she headed downstairs, and was surprised by the smell of typical breakfast foods in America. Her stomach growled low and softly, and she pushed the door open leading into the kitchen. Inside, Laura was busily cooking bacon, sausage, toast, scrambled eggs, and pancakes for what looked like a meal for two. Her brows rose a little, having not expected something like this. Since coming to the States, she typically ate a bowl of cereal or toast and jelly in the mornings most of the time.

"Oh, hi. Good morning, Wanda. Are you hungry?" Laura asked as she looked over her shoulder when the door opened. She busily took the pancakes off the griddle and turned it off after dividing the stack into two. "Did you sleep okay? Clint and the kids didn't wake you up, did they?"

"Good morning," Wanda replied, still not entirely sure she knew what was happening. Laura's question shook her out of her fugue, and her stomach growled its own answer. "I slept better than I expected, thank you. And yes, I am hungry, thank you again. Can I help you with anything?" She moved closer to the stove so she could see what Laura had going on. She felt like she should do something to repay the woman's kindness.

Laura smiled as she started stirring the eggs around in the skillet, and nodded. "I usually have trouble sleeping in an unfamiliar place too, especially if I've got a lot on my mind to start with," she said good naturedly. "I'm glad you slept a bit, at least. You seemed exhausted last night. Oh, I forgot to ask. You don't have any dietary restrictions I should know about do you? I don't know if you follow Jewish traditions, Christian ones, or what sort you might, or if you're vegetarian or vegan, so I wasn't sure if pork was an 'okay' thing to fix or not. Do you like cheese in your eggs?" She opened the bag of shredded cheese and prepared to pour some into the eggs if she said yes.

The corners of Wanda's lips rose a little as she shook her head, and started taking the bacon out of the other skillet with a set of tongs. "I was, and I'm sorry if I wasn't the best company last night. I don't know how to thank you and your family for allowing me to stay here a while," she said as she used the kitchen towel to clean her hands off. "I have no restrictions, no. And I'd love some cheese in my eggs if it isn't too much trouble?"

Laura poured the cheese into the eggs and stirred them as she shook her head, "You were fine, I promise, Wanda. We all know this isn't the easiest of times for anyone. You don't have to thank us, really. You're family, Clint sees you as a little sister, so we both do. The kids have already asked if it's okay if they call you Auntie Wanda? They were excited to meet you. They've seen you on TV with the rest of the Avengers, and Clint speaks of you often. Also, you really won them over last night by talking to them and stuff instead of just being polite like many adults tend to be with kids. So, they see you like they saw Nat, the 'cool aunt.'"

"He does?" asked Wanda in surprise. She sat down at Laura's insistence, and began getting herself settled to eat breakfast with her hostess. She never thought of Clint as being the overly talkative type. It seemed he was like most people, and somewhat of a different person when he was at home.

Laura set Wanda's food down in front of her, and then sat down with her own. She poured syrup over her pancakes, and offered Wanda biscuits from a plate she had covered with a kitchen towel. "Oh, Lord, yes," she answered Wanda's question with a pleasant voice. "He talks about a lot of the stuff you all do, and about all of you in general. You'd probably never know it, but you're all as much his family as the kids and I are. That, and he thinks the world of you. I'm sorry if this is a sore topic, I don't want to make you feel bad, but you had a brother, didn't you?"

Wanda was a little dumbfounded. The conversation was a completely normal, average conversation any two friends might have over breakfast. She'd been worried that she and the children would feel as if they had to walk on eggshells, and that she'd be this fragile, broken girl that couldn't bear to speak of any of that. _It's true, I guess I am a little fragile and broken. Yet, Laura is talking to me like she'd talk to anyone else. She doesn't see me as a freak, or as something to be awed or feared, or as if I were some sort of enemy because of the mistakes I've made that they've frequently had on the news,_ she thought.

She made no effort to hide the surprise as she stopped mid bite, and glanced up at her new friend. "Um, yes I did. A twin brother; his name was Pietro. We were very close, as most twins are, I suppose. Why do you ask?" Wanda countered with her own question. The eggs and cheese slowly warped their shape as gravity exerted itself while the bite waited to be eaten.

Laura's smile grew softer and she nodded slowly as she took a bite of bacon, chewing it for a moment before replying, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it to upset you. I was just wondering if Clint had told you? We named our youngest son Nathaniel, after Nat." The woman finished chewing her bacon and took a drink of her orange juice, letting it swish around in her mouth for a second before swallowing.

Still not following, Wanda nodded, "Yes, I knew that Nathaniel was originally thought to be a girl and you were going to name her after Natasha, and since he turned out to be a boy, you went with a masculine form of the name. He told me that, of course." It seemed an odd question, and she decided that maybe she'd just missed something. Rather than seem too inquisitive, she continued eating herself.

"That goober!" exclaimed Laura with an exasperated laugh. "He obviously didn't tell you all of it." She paused a long moment, taking a couple of bites as she did. When Wanda made no sign of understanding what she meant, Laura continued, "Nathaniel's full name is Nathaniel Pietro Barton."

Wanda's eyes widened and they had the shimmer of moisture welling along their bottoms as she stared at Laura a moment in shock and silence. "Pietro?" she asked in a cracking voice. Her mind was having trouble processing this information for a moment. "You named your son Pietro? I thought Clint hated Pietro…they didn't seem to get along in Novi Grad when we were fighting Ultron. I…I wouldn't have expected…" she trailed off.

Laura pushed her empty plate aside for the moment, and laid her hand over Wanda's lightly. "Yes, we named him Pietro, after your brother," Laura confirmed. "Clint has an odd way with friends. They often playfully insult each other, or seem very competitive with each other. If you ever paid attention to the back and forths he and Nat had, you'll know what I mean. He says Pietro sacrificed himself to save Clint, and that he 'liked the kid' to use his words. Clint felt naming a child after him was the least he could do to say thank you, to both of you. That way Pietro would be honored and his sacrifice wouldn't be forgotten."

Wanda's throat wouldn't make any sounds so she could speak. The gesture was something completely unexpected, and Laura was right, it was a way to honor Pietro. She sat in shocked silence for several moments before her eyes rose once more to meet Laura's. "Thank you. It means a lot to me that you both would so something so…meaningful and amazing."

X

The conversation with Laura had lasted a couple of hours, and the woman had suggested that maybe Wanda might like to take a walk around the farm to get some fresh air before lunch. Wanda thought it sounded like a good idea, and that the walk might help clear her head a little. She had so much on her mind, a chance to straighten some of it out would feel good.

She could still feel Vision, somehow, somewhere, and the more she let herself open up to the feeling, the stronger her belief that it was real became. More, she could still feel the tingle of the Infinity Stones, which she _shouldn't_ have been able to do at all, especially since Thanos had destroyed them in this present timeline by blasting them into atoms, using them against themselves. On top of that, they were destroyed literally dozens of light years away from Earth, in a place she could never reach even if they still existed. She was sure their power could be used to bring back those they lost during the fight, if they could just be accessed and used.

The Avengers had gone back in time and retrieved earlier versions of the stones to build their own gauntlet and use it to reverse the horror that Thanos had wrought. Yet, when they had done so, they had to return those stones back to the moment they took them, to make sure time didn't fold in on itself. They were probably doing that right then even as she walked around the path near the barn. But if the stones from _this_ timeline could be used, it wouldn't destroy the space time continuum and the universe wouldn't implode on itself.

_Only the stones that belong to the present, to now, were destroyed by Thanos five years ago. He reduced them to atoms. It's not as if you'd be gluing a broken vase back together. There's nothing to put back together. Or is there?_ she thought as she continued to walk the path that was well worn through the grass. As she had these thoughts, she knew the Avengers were busily traveling back in time to replace the borrowed stones to their rightful times and places.

She stopped walking and closed her eyes, just trying to feel the universe breathing around her. She didn't even dare to think what was going through her mind because putting it to actual words, even in her thoughts, might destroy any chance that something that crazy could actually work. It was an insane thought, and even more insane idea to even consider it in the first place, but it refused to leave her mind. She had to see if it felt like it was in any way even remotely possible, as crazy as the idea seemed.

Since she'd come back from the Snap, she'd felt herself and her powers changing. Like she'd confided in Clint, something felt different. She felt stronger, more powerful, and it kept building every day. She was already showing signs of having powers that she either didn't have before, or hadn't realized that they could be used in such a way, but this was crazy, even given that this felt like it had already been going on for a long time. Who knew what she was truly capable of with her powers evolving as they were? She didn't, so who else would?

There was a mild tingling tickle in her mind for a moment, like a tiny discharge of static electricity when you touch a doorknob after walking across a carpet dragging your feet wearing a coat. She felt something…she felt _it,_ whatever it was. She concentrated, and projected her senses and mind outwards, trying to reach out to whatever it was she was feeling.

Wanda stretched her mind, and stretched all her awareness out towards whatever it was that she was feeling. Just when it felt like she'd stretched as far as she possibly could towards what she believed could be the energy of the stones and had failed to reach it, her mind finally made contact. She felt a wave of pure awe pour over her and she half believed she was imagining it or dreaming it. However, there it was, it was _real_ and she could _feel_ it.

Elation threatened to overpower her she was so surprised and relieved to discover that she wasn't crazy. She _was_ feeling something, whether it was the energy of the destroyed stones, or something else, it was there. She could also still feel the echoes of Vision in her mind, slowly growing stronger and more persistent. When she'd managed to touch whatever it was that she was in contact with, those echoes became stronger, much stronger.

She allowed herself to continue feeling the energy she was somehow touching, getting to know more about whatever it was by continuing her exposure to it. It felt like it was billions of miles away, and if it was indeed what she thought it was, it truly was that far away, and somehow, she was touching it. If she could touch it, then she thought she should be able to manipulate it. There was obviously something to it, because even though she wasn't touching it physically, she could feel it as if it was.

Her mind wrapped around the source of the tingle, and she felt it tugging itself towards something. She allowed it to do so and it did so again and again, and whatever it was seemed to be gaining a form of some sort as it seemed to grow, and its presence increased geometrically. It was like putting pieces of a puzzle together with her mind. Could this truly be what she thought it was, or was this some strange delusion she was having, fueled by grief?

Energy flowed along the connection to whatever it was, and the stream grew more and more potent with every passing second. Suddenly, the form seemed content to remain still, whatever it was, and the process started over again, with another presence. Like the one before it, it drew itself towards something, and as it continued to do so, it too grew both in form and power. Could she _really_ be doing this? Or had she completely lost it and gone absolutely mad in her grief? Perhaps both had happened?

Manipulating whatever the presences were was taxing and exhausting, but she wasn't giving up, there was no way she could. The longer she manipulated these forces, the longer she felt them, the more positive she was that she was actually touching the energy and the atoms of the destroyed stones. How, she didn't have a clue, yet it appeared to be happening all the same for all intents and purposes. She didn't care _how_ or _why_ it was happening, only that it _was_ happening. That was all that mattered.

"I will set things right again, the way they're supposed to be, the way they should have been," she whispered to herself as she felt the wind pick up around her. "I don't care what it takes, how 'right' or 'wrong' it is, how natural or unnatural it is, or what the consequences are. If I can do it, I'm going to damned well do it, and no one and nothing is going to get in my way."

Above her, the sky grew dark quickly, as if in the middle of a freakish thunderstorm, and just as suddenly exploded into white light that drowned out even the sun for a few seconds. The whole time, the energy she was feeling grew stronger.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Avengers: Don't Get in My Way**_

**Chapter 3**

_Wanda entered the hotel room after Vision inserted the key into the lock, and turned it to open the door. Once inside, the synthezoid closed the door behind them, and placed their bags on a chair next to the dresser, then began unpacking. He was efficient and methodical in his movements, though he did keep his gaze on the young woman most of the time, and a smile remained on his face._

_They had rented the small room in Edinburgh, Scotland because it was out of the way, and far from any problems the two found themselves in the middle of. Here, they could be alone, with each other, and the rest of the world could fall away. Here, they could be themselves, two people in love completely immersed in their own little world, apart and aside from the Avengers, the Sokovia Accords, the United Nations, Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross, all of it. These little short interludes of happiness would be their oasis from the chaos that reigned around them most of the time._

_The first chance the couple got after the battle at the airport in Leipzig and each had made their respective deals with their teammates to have such little getaways, Edinburgh was where they had decided to go. It was well off the beaten path compared to their usual appearances with their teammates, and one of the last places one would expect to find them. That was what made it ideal for them to lose themselves for a short while._

_The excitement and anticipation of Vision and hers first respite coursed through her as she pulled her coat from her shoulders and hung it up. She hoped this would be the first of many such times they could steal together. For the next two weeks, they would explore their relationship further, and more completely, and see just where their feelings took them. Wanda knew her feelings for Vision had evolved and grown rapidly since the first time he took her in his arms, when he saved her on the train in Sokovia during the battle with Ultron. The feelings had started as a mild affection and a little fascination, but the more time she was around him, they had grown rapidly._

_Wanda knew that Vision had a similar attraction to her, almost from his first sight of her. It was as if Fate itself took each of them by the hand, and clasped their hands together. It felt like it was meant to be, and for Wanda, she had no doubts that that was indeed true. Their feelings for one another may have seemed unusual, strange, or even bizarre, to the people that saw them together but feelings were feelings all the same. Moreover, she didn't care how they saw it, because they weren't the ones feeling those emotions. _

_The heart knows what it feels, and what it wants, no matter how strange or bizarre the pairing might be. She felt their mutual affection to be anything but strange or bizarre. It was the most natural and true thing in the world as far as she was concerned. The rest of the world could be damned if they didn't like it. They weren't the ones whose opinions mattered. The only opinions that mattered to her were Vision's and her own._

_With a prolonged exhalation, she smiled as she breathed in the earthy, homey scent of the room and its furnishings. The wood was real wood, and the head and footboards of the bed, the wardrobe, the dresser, and the chairs were all obviously hand crafted, and further, they were works of art to her own perception. The wood's scent felt immediately calming and reassuring to her._

"_This is wonderful, perfect," she said with a tone of contentment and satisfaction as she took in the surroundings of the room. "It's so beautiful, and quiet. But even more importantly, it's ours and we're alone, even if it is only for the next couple of weeks." She came to where he was finishing up unpacking, and pressed herself against him as she wrapped her arms tightly around him. In that moment, she felt absolutely safe and at home. She always felt safe when she was with Vision._

_Vision reached up and laid his hand over hers where she had them clasped around him and closed his eyes. He felt peace, comfort, acceptance…things he only felt this strongly when he was with her. The synthezoid reveled in the flood of emotions he felt when she was near him, when she touched him or held him as she was at that moment. The logical part of his mind might not be able to parse the input those feelings gave him, but love had little to do with logic. This was something he learned anew every moment he was with her._

_The incident at Leipzig was almost a month earlier, and each of them had agreed that they would live for the future, not try to dwell in the past. He looked into the mirror above the dresser, and contemplated their reflection in the mirror. He had morphed his appearance to appear as an ordinary human male, with tousled blonde hair and a fair complexion. He'd finally settled on this face after trying at least fifteen different appearances before it. He decided to get Wanda's opinion on it rather than obsess about trying to find the "perfect" appearance. This was the first time he had worn it in her presence._

"_Wanda?" he began tentatively while watching her eyes in the reflection. "Do you like this appearance I've chosen for our interlude? I didn't know your preferences as to hair color and the like, so I simply selected something, and hoped to get your input on it." The volume of his voice dropped a bit and he felt an odd flutter inside, a pang of anxiety, at least according to his information on possible causes for the feeling he had._

_Wanda paused in mid squeeze of the embrace she had him wrapped in, and looked up at their reflection for a moment. Finally, she eased him up from the carpet and then into the stiff chair that sat at the dresser. Once he was seated, she moved towards him, and straddled his lap. Her eyes met his and she stared into them for a long moment, a silence that only seemed to heighten Vision's anxious reaction._

"_I like it," she answered after several moments of silence. "It looks like you, only with normal skin tones and with hair. Actually, I find you quite handsome. But I'll tell you a secret," she continued as she dropped her soft husky voice to a whisper. Her lips quirked upwards at the corners and her eyes sparkled in the soft lights of the room. "You are the man I want, no matter what appearance you choose to use. I feel the same, no matter what you look like. As long as it's you, it's perfect."_

_Her hands came to his face, and cupped his cheeks in a light caress while she kept staring into his eyes. At the moment, they looked quite different in color and superficial appearance to his normal eyes, but she could look past the affected countenance and see him, nothing but him. Slowly, she leaned forward and gently pressed her lips against his, while her arms came slowly around his neck. Behind her closed eyelids, it was like watching a cavalcade of lights exploding and it was unlike anything she'd ever experienced before kissing him._

_So far, they'd only kissed a handful of times, usually displaying their affection for one another by holding hands, or other touches. It was like watching a couple of shy teenagers working up the courage for their first kiss, she thought with amusement. She didn't care, though. Vision had never had such an experience before, it was new to him, and she wanted it to be as perfect for him as it was for her. From the first kiss until the one they were sharing at that exact moment, the explosions of light lit up behind her eyelids, and the warm swell of emotion washed over her._

_Over the past few weeks, Wanda had let things progress naturally with them, even if she had to occasionally hint a little more strenuously than usual now and then. It worked, though, she thought. Vision was gaining more certainty and confidence in how they would touch, kiss and interact a little at a time. Things were moving a little slower than most couples moved in this day and age, but that was fine with her. Everything in its own good time, so that the longer it took, the better it developed and grew._

_Their lips parted reluctantly, the skin of their lips holding on until the last second, only pulling away once they had moved far enough apart for their skin to snap back into place. He reached up with a very gentle touch and ever so carefully moved a strand of hair from her face before cupping her cheek with his palm. "You are so very beautiful, Wanda. Beautiful in every way, I mean. Your soul, your face, all of you is perfection itself in my eyes," he whispered softly as he nuzzled her cheek gently with his own. "I'm drawn to you as the tide is drawn to the shore, and a flower is drawn towards the sunlight."_

_Wanda's eyes closed and she held her breath for a few seconds longer than normal before pulling back and placing her hands on his shoulders. She studied his eyes and face for a prolonged moment before she rasped softly, "I'm far from perfect, Viz. I'm as flawed as they come. Have you been reading poetry again? It's very sweet, I wish I were as beautiful and wonderful and everything as you tell me I am. I wish I could be those things for you, for real."_

_She began to look away, and it was obvious to Vision that she was a little embarrassed, and that had not been his intent. With the lightest of touches to her chin, he turned her face back towards him and allowed himself to smile a small affectionate smile. "That's just it, you are, Wanda. That and much, much more. You are perfect because you are flawed. Your flaws are what help define who you are, the sort of person you are, and influence the person you continue to be. They are fundamental to your entire being. Something is only beautiful or wonderful when there is something to stand as a contrast. Your wonder and beauty are only enhanced by what you perceive as flaws."_

_Wanda felt herself turning slowly red as he spoke and the fluttering inside her grew in intensity with his continued touch. She tilted her head downwards a little, and allowed her hair to conceal her face for the most part. She could feel what being this close to him, what feeling his touch, and looking into his eyes was doing to her. Her voice almost cracked as she whispered, "You have no idea what you make me feel, how you make me feel. I've never felt like this before, not ever. I…I'm going to go take a shower, and maybe we can…I don't know…snuggle afterwards?"_

_Vision looked slowly up at her as he breathed in the scent of her skin, her hair, and felt every soft gentle curve of her as he asked, "I don't wish to seem inappropriate, and if I do, please forgive me, Wanda…but would it be all right if I…would you want me to join you?" He saw the very surprised look on her face, and curved his lips lightly. "You have nothing to fear. I would never hurt you, and I won't rust, if that is why you seem surprised? In either event, I would be very pleased to snuggle afterwards with you."_

_Wanda didn't say anything; instead she got off his lap, and then took his hand, and tugged him with a gentle pull to stand. Once he was on his feet, she leaned up against him and pressed her lips to his again, letting herself get lost in the bliss she felt growing every moment they were together. She shuddered softly as if she got a sudden chill, and then reached up to start unbuttoning his shirt before sliding it over his shoulders and down his arms to pool on the carpet._

"_No, I'm not cold, Viz," she whispered huskily as she continued to peel his clothes from him slowly, one article at a time, and headed off the question she knew was coming. "It was a good shiver. It was a shiver because I feel excited and good. It was because I want to be here, with you, in your arms, more than anywhere else in the world at any given time."_

_Vision looked as if he were about to say something for a moment, but he chose to remain silent as he started to slowly and carefully undress her as well. His touch was tender, gentle and slow. He watched her face for any sign that he was getting into territory he shouldn't be in or that he was doing something that she didn't like, or in a way she didn't like. Even silent, he was ever so polite and precise._

_Clothes piled on the floor as they continued to sensuously undress one another, and finally they were down to the other's undergarments. Wanda's mouth was dry and she was nervous, but not because she didn't want to do this. Far from it, to be honest with herself, she thought. She wasn't sure what she was going to discover once they were completely naked, and she didn't want to react in a way that he could misunderstand. She hadn't seen him naked since he emerged from the Cradle after Thor's lightning strike, and she wasn't absolutely sure he was naked even then. If he wasn't naked, he wasn't much more than naked._

_When she paused and seemed nervous, Vision tilted his head and touched her face once more, as he asked, "Are you all right, Wanda? Have I done something wrong, or incorrectly? You seem quite anxious. It isn't my intention to make you anxious."_

_She swallowed slowly and tried to hold his gaze when she lifted her head. "No, no, you haven't done anything wrong," she answered as she touched his chest with the palms of her hands. She'd thought about this moment quite a lot, and she wasn't sure what to expect, or how to ask what may be the case. Her eyes fell to his waistband once more and then back up. "I don't know how to…I mean, I know you are a synthetic man instead of a traditional android, does that mean…I mean do you…you know?"_

_Confusion washed over Vision's features for a moment as he studied Wanda's face, and then he thought he gradually understood. "Yes, I am a synthetic man," he answered as his eyes never moved from hers. "I do have some circuitry and computer systems, yes, but they are merely augments to my synthetic body and organs. With very few deviances, my body functions essentially as any human body would. I don't need to eat or breathe, though I can if I choose to, or at least I presume I can. My eyes secrete both tears and vitreous fluid, I have blood of a sort, I have a heart, lungs, brain, liver, everything you have other than obviously gender related bodily features that are not pertinent to the male body type. My brain is enhanced by computer processors and circuitry, but it is still a brain._

"_So, I'm assuming you are wondering if I am…um….equipped with a replica of the male reproductive system?" he asked finally. "I am a synthetic body replica of the human male form. I have all the parts, including those, though I usually keep them covered for modesty's sake. If you mean am I capable of…procreation I am not one hundred percent sure, but the odds are very much in favor of my not being able to do so, since my body doesn't contain DNA in the sense that a human body does, therefore those aspects, like the rest of me, are artificial."_

_Wanda allowed herself a soft short laugh and she shook her head. "You really know how to sweet talk a girl and keep the fires of passion and desire burning, don't you?" she teased as she kissed him softly to hopefully let him know it was only a jest and not a serious statement._

_He opened his mouth to speak, but she lightly slipped her fingers over his lips with a light touch and shook her head. Then, once he knew that talk wasn't the proper response at that moment, she took his hands and placed them on her shoulders, and nodded for him to continue._

_His fingers unhooked her bra and carefully pulled it from her body. His gaze moved over her with awe and wonder, it seemed, before he dropped the bra with the rest of her clothes. She looked into his eyes and nodded softly, silently telling him it was okay, and then he hooked his thumbs carefully into the waistband of her panties and pushed them over the flare of her hips and buttocks, allowing them to slowly and sensually slide down her soft legs to pool around her ankles. _

_She stepped out of them and slid into his arms again and kissed him softly at first, but let the passion come out in a slow steady stream. Wanda backed off from the kiss before it became too heated, and she watched his face for signs that he was okay with it, and then peeled his undershorts down over his hips and let them fall to the floor. She wasn't sure what exactly she was expecting, but what she saw looked perfectly normal, pretty much what you'd expect to find when you undressed any guy._

_Wanda took his hand with a smile and silently led them into the shower. The water only took a couple of moments to get steaming hot, and they stepped in under it. As the water cascaded down over them, they soaped up and washed each other, then rinsed the other while taking liberal opportunities to kiss and caress whenever possible, often leaving long gaps in the process of actually getting clean. Vision took her breath away with each touch and kiss. He was gentle, sensual, and respectful. He wasn't rushed nor did he seem to be solely interested in slaking his own desire and need. Vision was perfectly mindful and attentive to her every need and desire, the perfect gentleman and the perfect man as far as she was concerned._

_Once out of the shower, they eventually made their way to the bed in the midst of marathon kissing. Their hands wandered slowly and thoroughly over each other's body, exploring every inch they could touch as their lips pressed and moved against one another over and over again. Wanda felt like she couldn't kiss him enough, that she couldn't feel him against her skin enough, and that she'd do anything to keep the heaven they shared going forever._

_She finally gently pushed him down onto the bed, and climbed up over him to sit astraddle his hips as she leaned down to kiss along the line of his collar bone, then up his neck and over his jaw, eventually finding his lips. Murmuring, she kissed him repeatedly, and finally paused long enough to look him in the eyes with her heart pounding in her chest, and her breathing deep, harsh and labored, and said, "Viz, make love to me. I want to share everything with you."_

_There was a moment of surprise and shock in his eyes when she suddenly broke the kiss and whispered her request, but he finally nodded a slow, gentle nod. He moved as if to roll over and put himself on top of her, but she pressed his chest with a firm, but gentle, pressure, so he remained as he was. _

_Wanda lifted herself and gasped softly as she lowered once more. She could feel him vividly, and she sank to his chest. Her lips left soft butterfly kisses on the flesh of his chest and she found his lips once more as she rose and fell in a slow rhythm. Each kiss was punctuated by a soft gasp, or a quiet moan as her movements became faster and more choppy._

_The experience was completely new for Vision, and the sensations he was feeling were intense, more intense than anything he could remember ever feeling, with the exception of every time he and Wanda kissed. He started making soft noises in between kisses as well, and his movements started out a little awkward, but soon enough they segued into something smoother and natural._

_Vision couldn't take his eyes off her eyes and face as she moved atop him, slowly coaxing his emotions from their comfortable level to unheard of peaks of unbridled madness. Their lips met and parted repeatedly, rapaciously, as his hands began to touch her with great care. His fingertips glided over her flesh, brushing over the flare of her hips up to her ribs and then he cupped her breast in his palm. The pad of his thumb dragged over the tip of her hardened nubs that adorned her soft silken globe and she hissed, shuddering in abject pleasure as she gasped and cried out while her body tensed and writhed about. She threw her head back, arching her back deeply as she shook atop him as if she was in the midst of an earthquake._

_Wanda's breath came in short, sharp bursts and she drew her bottom lip in, as she bit it with a muffled moan. Vision felt sensations racing along his spine and sensory web, and he couldn't seem to control how suddenly and even chaotic the sensations wracking his every sense were at that moment. It kept happening to Wanda repeatedly, many times, and humidity was building between them that was so thick it was almost physical. _

_Their movements became more frenetic and with a massive series of quakes and shudders, both gave wordless voice to what they were sharing. Many moments later, Wanda collapsed on top of Vision, sweaty and shaking, to curl up on his chest in his arms. She kissed him while her entire body trembled, and she fought to regain some semblance of control of her body._

_Her eyes sought his out and she let her palsied fingers glide over his cheek as her lips never drew more than an eighth of an inch from his and she whispered in a raspy, husky purr, "I love you, Vision. You are my universe." It was the first time she'd ever said those words to him, and she expected to feel a dropping feeling in the pit of her stomach and indescribable fear, but instead, she felt contentment, safety, comfort, and as if she'd put two broken pieces back together to make one object once more._

_Wanda blinked, and she found that she was no longer in bed with Vision, curled up against him. They were in the woods in Wakanda, near the log. Vision was on his knees, with what you could only call tears in the corners of his eyes. "You could never hurt me. I just feel you," he said as she felt the fear and bile rise in her throat and tears spilled from her eyes like water from a leaky dam. She pushed hard, intensifying the energy and power in her blasts focused on the Mind Stone in Vision's forehead. Her heart, her very soul cried out in anguish as she was being forced to destroy the person she loved most in the world._

"_I love you," Vision managed to say just as the Mind Stone shattered into a million pieces, as energy and light erupted from it and encapsulated the entire forest for a few seconds. Wanda was devastated, exhausted beyond reason, and her heart felt as if it were torn from her chest, shredded and then stomped on. _

_Then Thanos smiled at her, the bastard smiled! As he did so, he twisted his left hand, covered by the gauntlet, and a green ring of light formed around it. He twisted his hand slowly, as if closing a water spigot, and the light rushed back towards Vision. The shards of the stone fell back into one piece at Vision's brow, and he gasped in pain as Thanos made the ring disappear. His gauntleted fist closed around Vision's throat, and his other hand pinched at the stone, inexorably dug into Vision's head, ripped the stone from her beloved's forehead and tossed him aside as if he were less than a dirty dish rag._

"Aunt Wanda, are you okay?" asked a voice as the young Sokovian jerked awake and to a sitting position on the couch. Lila, Clint and Laura's daughter, had been shaking her gently where she had been sleeping on the couch when the young woman screamed loudly and jerked awake.

Her eyes were wild, and her cheeks bore stains from a heavy flow of tears. Wanda's face was twisted in fury and hatred as she screamed, "No! No, you bastard! _No!"_ Red writhing energy warped around her hands, and the entire house shook violently. Floorboards were ripping themselves from the floor, the studs in the walls were breaking through the drywall, and the temperature immediately around her had risen at least fifty degrees.

"Wanda?" yelled Clint as he came running into the living room. As soon as he saw her, he knew something was _wrong_ and it was getting dangerous with the speed of light. "Wanda! Take it easy, kid! Calm down, you're sa—"

Wanda waved her hand harshly and the red energy engulfed Clint, and sent him flying towards the wall. He struck a stud that was ripping through the plaster and fell heavily to the ground, moaning in discomfort. The woman's eyes glowed deep red and her teeth were bared in pain and rage. Lila screamed at the lashing out and stepped back, trying to stay out of the way of whatever Wanda would do next.

"Clint! Lila!" Laura yelled as she ran into the room. She nearly tackled Lila as she dove with her daughter in her arms towards her husband. In a panic, she checked his vitals and shook him to try and pull him back to his senses. Her eyes lifted to fearfully focus on Wanda, the young woman that had seemed so broken but on her way to mending earlier in the day, but now was the embodiment of rage and pain personified. "Wanda, please! It's us, Wanda!"

The house continued to tremble and shake violently. The noise was so loud and so bad it sounded as if the very earth was spitting the house from its foundation. The Bartons gathered together so that Clint and Laura could try and keep the kids safe, but suddenly Nathaniel pulled free of the impromptu family bear hug. He stumbled to his feet as the house rocked and shook, heading towards Wanda. His family screamed for him to stop and come back, but the little boy wasn't listening.

All Wanda could see was the little clearing in the Wakandan forest where Vision lay dead with a massive hole in his head where Thanos had cruelly ripped the Mind Stone from the synthezoid's head, and the Mad Titan himself looming over her, leering, and taking great pleasure in her anguish and rage. She was unaware of the house, Clint or his family, or anything else. The things she was seeing and hearing were completely solid and real, as far as she could tell.

Her eyes glowed an even brighter red, and the energy coiling around her hands grew significantly more threatening. She growled in a voice filled with hatred and venom, and yelled at the top of her lungs, _"__YA vb'yu tebe, sukyn synu! Ty vse vzyav u mene! Vse! Dlya tsʹoho ty pomresh, strashenno, bolisno i bez shmatochka myloserdya. Vy dumayete, shcho znayete, yak vyklykaty bilʹ i vidchay u kohosʹ? Ty ne robysh, ale budesh. Tse ya vam obitsyayu, svoloche. Ty budesh."_ (Translation: "I will kill you, you son of a bitch! You have taken everything from me! Everything! For that, you are going to die, terribly, painfully, and without a shred of mercy. You think you know how to cause pain and despair upon someone? You do not, but you will. That I promise you, bastard. You will.") [**Author's Note:** I used Google Translate to translate that bit of rage scream into something resembling Ukrainian, which I understand that according to the behind the scenes information on Sokovia is the primary language they speak in the fictional country. Obviously, I also used the translation that uses the Latin alphabet rather than the Cyrillic alphabet for simplicity's sake. So, to anyone who actually speaks Ukrainian, I apologize deeply for any and all stupid mistakes, discrepancies, or butchering and mangling of your beautiful language that the translator may have played holy hell in a hand basket with. I included it here as dramatic effect to illustrate how distraught and in pain she is, and the fact that she isn't completely returned to reality from her dream just yet. Thank you!]

Nathaniel swallowed slowly and stepped in front of Wanda, looking up at her. He wasn't sure what to think of all that was going on, the only thing he knew for certain is that Wanda was upset and hurting. "Auntie Wanda?" he said in a small voice as he hoped to get her attention. "Auntie Wanda, it's me, Nathaniel. Nathaniel Pietro Barton, I was named after your brother, wasn't I? You're safe. You're at home, with us. I know you're scared, sad, mad, and hurting. Its okay, you're supposed to be. You lost a lot. You have us, though. We love you, all of us do."

Wanda's attention wavered and her face contorted in too many different emotions for her to even attempt to sort out. Her eyes fell on Nathaniel and she stared at him a moment. The red light in her eyes slowly faded, and the red energy swirling around her hands slowly disappeared. Her eyes flooded over and her lips trembled. "Pietro?" she said in a harsh whisper, her throat felt like sandpaper. Her eyes finally focused and she covered her open mouth with her hand and fell to the floor in an exhausted heap.

"Oh, my God, what did I do?" she asked no one in particular as she sunk to the floor. She reached up for Nathaniel, but stopped and pulled her arms back against her chest and looked down. "Oh, my God, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

While his family looked on in shock, Nathaniel approached the young Sokovian and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. His small hand patted and stroked her hair as he held her. "We're all okay, Auntie Wanda. You didn't hurt anybody. You're going to be okay. You'll be okay, I promise. I'll help if I can."

Clint sat up more straight with a loud grunt, and winced as he stretched. "Speak for yourself, Sport. She didn't try to throw you through a wall, kiddo," he said, winking at his son. "I hurt plenty, enough that I don't want to audition for WWE wrestling again anytime soon."

Wanda squeezed Nathaniel as tight as she dared, but when Clint spoke, she got a horrified look on her face. She scrambled to her feet, though her feet slid out from under her twice in the process before she reached out to touch Clint's shoulder, but stopped halfway there. "I'm so sorry. I never meant to…it wasn't intentional…I didn't know what was…"

Clint chuckled softly and glanced over at Laura and the kids before he opened his arms and took Wanda into a hug. "Hey, hey, hey, take it easy, kid. You're okay, we're okay, everything's fine," he said as he patted her back. "That must have been one hell of a nightmare, Wanda. You slept through lunch, and most of the afternoon, you were really wrung out. We're just worried about you, you know? You know we're here if you need us, right?"

"We _all_ are, Aunt Wanda," added Lila as she came to the woman's side, and gave her a hug as well. "It can't be easy, I know. Mom and Dad told me a little about what happened with everything, about everybody that died besides just Mr. Stark. We're still here, and we'll help if we can."

Wanda nodded, and started to wipe her nose unceremoniously on the sleeve of her jacket, but Cooper handed her a box of tissue with a sympathetic smile. She nodded softly in thanks, and took advantage of the tissues. "Thank you, everyone. It means a lot to me. I'll see if I can't undo some of the damage I've done, just stand back…please?"

Everyone took a couple of steps back while Wanda looked around, taking in everything she'd accidentally done to their house while in the throes of her nightmare induced rage. Finally she took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then opened her eyes and lifted her hands. She moved them in intricate and odd patterns, as they glowed in that red shadowy energy once more, and things started flying and moving back into its proper place. Chips of plaster returned to their places, studs reset themselves, floorboards returned to their place on the floor and after a few moments, everything was back to being as if nothing had happened.

"Excuse me, please. I'm sorry, I need some air," Wanda said when it was all done. She pulled her coat closer around her and went out the door, seemingly headed for the high hill nearby the house. It was a favorite place of the family to go sit and think, and apparently Wanda thought so as well.

Clint watched her go, and then turned to Laura, who was already opening her mouth to speak. Before she could, Clint nodded, looked out the window and then back to Laura. "It's okay, I'm on it. I'll be back in a bit," he said as he opened the door and jogged up towards the hill once he was outside.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Avengers: Don't Get in My Way**_

**Chapter 4**

Wanda sat at the top of the hill near the Barton farmhouse under the velvet night sky, dotted with white dots of light so far away, staring into the infinitude that it represented. Her breathing was fast, labored, and she ran her hands back through her hair, her body wracked with the fear of what she had just done.

Behind her, the house still stood, no thanks to her. In her nightmare induced rage and fugue, she'd almost destroyed the home of the people that took her in as family, that were her friends. She'd almost done only God knows what to them, all because she couldn't handle the terror and rage of the dream she'd been having.

_Their home was almost completely destroyed, and they could have been killed if Nathaniel and Lila hadn't snapped me back to my senses. What if I hadn't snapped out of it? What if I lost all sense and control and destroyed this entire place? Why have I become like this, so powerful, powerful enough to destroy on such a large scale? How did this happen to me?_ she thought as she wiped her cheeks several times and curled her arms around her knees to try to stop shaking.

The cold grip of fear tightened around her, and now she understood why everyone had started to fear her after the explosion she accidentally caused while trying to apprehend Crossbones. She understood why Vision had told her that if she left the safety of the Avengers compound, people would never stop being afraid of her. She'd responded that she couldn't control their fear, only her own.

_Only I can't control my own fear, can I? Since I returned from the oblivion that I was sent to when Thanos enacted the Snap, I've been different, much different. Am I even the same person I was before then? Does the true Wanda Maximoff even exist anymore? If not, what returned in her place? Who am I? __**What**__ am I now?_ These thoughts raced through her mind as she shivered in the passing wind, but her shiver wasn't from the chill in the air. It was the chill within herself.

The sound of light footsteps in the soft grass behind her brought her thoughts back to the then and there. Before she could speak, Clint came over the rise and sat down next to her on the hill. He sat close to her, but not close enough to crowd her personal space.

"Hey, Wanda, how are you feeling? You okay?" he asked in a light tone in the hope that maybe it would help her calm down and relax. He drew a deep breath and let it out in an exaggerated sigh of relief. "Man, dreams can really get to you, you know? I haven't slept right since old Scrotum Chin snapped his fingers and the world went to shit. Nightmares every time I close my eyes, it seems like."

Wanda closed her eyes a moment, trying to hold on to some sense of composure, before she opened them once more and replied, "I almost destroyed your home and killed you and your family. I'm feeling like shit, so no, I'm not okay." She ran her hands back through her hair once more as her gaze returned to the infinite star field above them.

Clint nodded softly and reached up to lightly rub the Sokovian's back. After a moment, he spoke quietly, "Yeah, maybe. But you _didn't_ Wanda. You managed to get yourself together. With powers like yours… well, I can't pretend I know what it's like, but from what I can see, they're not so easy to control. They seem like they mirror pretty much what you're feeling. If you're pretty calm and mellow, no problem. You get angry or excited, something like that, you can keep them in check. Get royally pissed off or hurt, you're like everybody else, it's hard to control yourself.

"Your powers are just part of that, like punching a wall or something. You aren't your powers, Wanda. They don't control you or dictate what you do. The person you are isn't going to let something bad like that happen. You scared the bejeezus out of us, maybe, but that's all it was, a scare. The Wanda I know, and that I'm sitting next to right now, is a great person. Scared, angry, pissed off, whatever you want to call it, but that doesn't make you any less a great person. It doesn't make you any less our friend, or our family."

He paused, letting those words sink in, before he patted her shoulder and waited for her to turn towards him once more. "Now, besides the obvious, what do you think is messing with your head?" he asked with genuine concern. He thought that maybe if she had calmed down some, maybe she could put a finger on what was going on with her.

The young woman turned her head towards him once more, but there were several moments of silence as she seemed to be collecting her thoughts. Finally, she exhaled and answered, "Since I came back, I've been… different. Changed in some way." She spread her hands wide as if to encompass something before going on, "My powers are stronger, and they seem to be changing too. I can do things that I wasn't able to before. At least, I don't think I was. In either event, I'm doing things I've never done before, or knew that I was capable of."

She trailed off again, so Clint finally nodded and gave her even more of his undivided attention. "Yeah, you said that before, after the funeral," he replied, still watching her eyes and face. "You seemed like you were going to say something else there. What's wrong? Are you trying to get a handle on it, or are you afraid of it?"

"Both," she answered candidly, fixing her eyes on him. There was a combination of certainty and dread in them. "I can sense… something, I'm not sure what. As crazy as it sounds, I think I can sense the stones, as I told you before. Now, though, it's more than just sensing them. I can _feel_ them. It's not just some vague impression; it's something concrete, something real. Their power feels like it's building, I just don't know what it's building towards. It feels fragmented, broken… but it's as if they're rapidly healing, I don't know how else to describe it. I can feel them pulling towards something, towards each other, maybe."

Clint listened, and the more he heard, the more concerned he was becoming. The stones were something to be locked away and kept out of the reach of everyone. Their power was too strong a temptation, and as mad and corrupted as Thanos was, it was possible that they made it worse with him or could cause it to happen to someone else. That wasn't something anyone wanted to find out.

"I'll tell you what," he said as he drew out his phone and started scrolling through contacts. "Let's get in touch with the big brains and the magic guys, and see what they think. Ask them whether such a thing is even possible, and if it is, what would be making it happen. Sound like a plan?" He began dialing a number as he spoke.

Wanda nodded but suddenly stiffened and froze in place. She was staring up towards the stars, and her breathing increased to a rapid rate, almost to the point of hyperventilation.

_Wanda…_

Thus far, Clint hadn't seemed to notice. He was busily talking to someone, presumably Bruce or one of the other resident geniuses they had at their disposal, completely oblivious to what was going on with the young woman.

She felt a chill run down her spine like cold lightning, and she blinked rapidly. Her eyes were welling up and there was a torn feeling growing inside her. It felt like she was going to be rent asunder from the inside.

_It shouldn't have had to be you, but it was…_

The voice echoing in her mind was impossible, but one she'd yearned to hear again since that day in the Wakandan forest. She drew her knees up high and buried her face in her hands, whispering to herself over and over, "It can't be, it can't, it's impossible."

_You didn't hurt me, Wanda. I just felt you. I need to be whole again. Bring me back to you…_

Clint finally heard the whispered mumbling, though it was indistinct. Indistinct or not, it raised his concerns, and he reached over to touch her shoulder. "Wanda, are you okay?" When she didn't answer, he spoke rapidly into the phone, "Bruce, I don't know what the hell is going on, but there's something happening here. Wanda needs our help, I just don't know what that help would be. She's starting to spook me a little, she's like she's in her own little world."

The Sokovian girl pressed her palms against her eyes while her fingers gripped and tugged at her hair. "How?" she asked in a strangled and cracking voice as her body shuddered violently. "Viz…? How do I do that?"

_You said you just felt me. Feel me now, find me… Your heart will show you the way…_

"Viz?" she called out louder, staring at the sky as she rose to her feet abruptly. She frantically searched the sky, as if expecting to see her fallen lover somehow. The sight made Clint jump back a little in shock.

He stopped talking into the phone for a moment, ignoring the excited and concerned voice on the other end and looked up at her. "Vision's gone, Wanda. You know he's gone. I'm so sorry, I'd do anything to help you get him back, to get them _all_ back. Vision, Nat, Tony… all of them. But we can't, Wanda."

_Find them all to bring back the one… Reality is askew, it needs to be put right once more…_

The girl could hear nothing except the soft voice whispering in her mind. She could hear his voice, she could feel his presence. As she felt him when she examined the stone, she could feel him then. She could feel him as surely as the sun rose and set day after day. Clint's words were lost in the cacophony of echoes that spoke to her in Vision's voice. Nothing reached her except the whispers only she could hear.

"Big Guy, I think all hell's about to break loose," Clint said quietly into the phone as he watched Wanda with widening eyes. "Wanda's in La La Land, and it's not looking like the trip is a pretty one. So, the faster you can all get here, the sooner we can bring her back from wherever it is that she thinks she is at the moment. Put it to the floor, okay?"

Wanda's hands stretched up towards the sky as she lowered her head with her eyes closed. Red energy began to slowly swirl around her hands as she whispered incomprehensively to herself. "They call to me," she finally said quietly as her head began to rise once more. _"He_ calls to me. I can feel him… I can feel them. I will put things right again. Things will be as they should be."

"What calls to you? Who calls to you? The stones?" asked Clint with more than a little trepidation. His call to Bruce Banner had ended with the team on the way, so he was trying to placate and stall Wanda from whatever it was that she was about to do. He didn't believe she was going to conjure a midnight picnic or anything, so most likely, it wasn't going to be nice.

Wanda's eyes began to glow the same red they had before, and the glow slowly intensified. She fixed her gaze upon Clint and nodded. "The stones, yes," she confirmed as she continued to weave the patterns with her hands. "With their help, I can fix everything. I can make everything the way it's supposed to be instead of this broken half life we are living now."

Clint's brows rose as he listened to her, and he was unsure of how he should react, because he had no idea of how _she_ would react. "There are no stones, Wanda," he said sadly. His friend was obviously slipping into a very bad mental state brought on by intense, unimaginable grief. "They were destroyed. Thanos used the stones themselves to destroy them, to blast them into atoms. They're gone."

Wanda's expression hardened as she lowered her arms, though her hands still moved in the odd intricate patterns she used when she used her powers. "You can't truly destroy anything. You can only change its state of existence. I'm going to go find them and bring them back," she said quietly, though her expression was cold and set hard. "I'm going to show you, show all of you. All I can say is don't get in my way."

Wanda's expression softened a little, and even through the glow of her eyes, Clint could see the warmth that he knew was in there. She thought she could do this crazy thing she was intending to do, and if she'd been in her right mind, she'd never have even conceived of such a crazy idea. He knew that despite her cold expression and the rather obvious warning in her voice she wasn't planning to hurt him or anyone else. She simply believed that the craziness she was talking was actually possible. Whatever it was that she thought she heard had her going on wild goose chases.

Before Clint could say anything back, she waved her hands in a circle and a light appeared in front of her and expanded. It spewed out a reddish hazy fog fading to black in the center, and after a split second's hesitation, Wanda stepped into it and disappeared. Behind her, the reddish haze dissipated like fog in morning sunlight. In seconds, it was gone and so was Wanda.

X

Twenty minutes later, the quin jet had set down not far from the hill. Bruce Banner stepped down the ramp, followed closely by Dr. Hank Pym. Hank's wife Janet was right behind him, and several of the others were there as well. They approached Clint as he came down the hill with a rather frazzled expression on his face. Bewilderment was written all over his face.

After a couple of moments of quick greetings, Hank and Janet approached him as they cast a couple of looks up the hill that Clint had come down from. "What, exactly, happened when you say she disappeared?" Hank asked as he adjusted some sort of meter he held in his hand.

"Just that, Doc," replied Clint as he rubbed the back of his neck and looked up the hill a moment. "She did that thing she does with her hands when that red stuff is swirling around her, her eyes started glowing, and this red light opened up in front of her. There was a lot of red and black fog, then she stepped into it, and right after that, the fog went away and she was gone. It looked kind of like when Thanos would do his vanishing act."

"Can you show us where it happened, please, Clint?" asked Janet, who also held a handful of equipment. She and her husband exchanged looks, and seemed to be almost talking without saying a word.

Clint nodded and started back up the hill, where he and the Pyms were followed by Bruce and the heavyset man from the Sanctum, Wong. As they walked up the incline, Bruce adjusted the sling that held his damaged arm and asked, "What did she say? You said she was talking kind of deliriously and that she thought someone was talking to her?"

As they reached the top of the hill, Clint pointed out the exact spot that Wanda had disappeared from, and turned to face his teammate. He shrugged at his friend, and replied, "Yeah, she kept calling out Vision's name, and then said she was going to get the stones and bring them back. I told her that the stones had been destroyed, they were gone, but she said nothing could ever really be destroyed, you could only change its state of existence or something like that."

"Our young friend is correct," chimed in Hank as he scowled at the readings on the equipment he and his wife were using. "Matter can be broken down into atoms, but atoms are still matter. If the atoms were used to create molecules, and those molecules in turn were constituents of elements, the elements then comprise a type of matter when combined. When you reduce something to atoms, you are essentially dismantling the matter down into its smallest form. Its state of existence has changed, but it is still part of the matter that it was broken down from. Theoretically, it's possible to take a given set of atoms, and reconstitute them one step at a time back into the form of matter that it was originally. Both processes are, of course, affected by some form of energy."

At Clint's dumbfounded expression, Bruce smiled lightly and shrugged. "Think like the transporter on _Star Trek,"_ he explained. "Thanos used the energy the stones produced to break the stones down into atoms. As Hank said, it could be possible to employ a similar energy to rebuild those atoms back into the stones. It'd be one hell of a trick, but it is theoretically possible."

Clint nodded in understanding at the transporter example and frowned lightly. "Well, she's got the energy, and we've all seen her manipulate stuff without a lot of effort. I don't know if she's ever manipulated atoms or anything, but I don't know that she hasn't, either."

"Since Wong has a lot of knowledge about the stones, I thought maybe his input might help us along with this," Bruce said as he laid a large green hand on Wong's shoulder. The Chinese man stepped up to the rest of the group at the encouragement.

"Great, just what we need. Voodoo dolls, chicken bones, balloon animals, and card tricks. That'll explain everything," grumbled Hank under his breath as he kept scanning the area, looking for some sort of clue that most present couldn't even guess at.

Janet slapped his shoulder lightly, and then looked back at Wong apologetically before turning back to her husband and whispering in a low voice, "Be nice, Hank. Magic is what got us to the fight against Thanos, and just because you don't deal with it doesn't mean it's fake or bullshit."

Wong shrugged and gave a quick smile to Janet before he got himself prepared. He watched everyone's face for a moment, and then began, "When the universe was first formed at the explosion of the Big Bang, the six singularities that prompted the explosion itself were scattered across the new universe as six elemental crystals that we know as the Infinity Stones. These stones each control one of the essential aspects of existence. Space, Reality, Power, Soul, Mind and Time. To wield all these stones at once is to wield the power of a celestial being, a god if you will. As we've already seen, even with an exceptional container, a mortal using the stones is more often than not a fatal result of trying to use such power."

Bucky Barnes, the Winter Solider, had been listening quietly from behind the main group of people. Magic and science weren't his thing and weren't in his wheelhouse. He was basically a loaded gun; you pointed him at a target and let him go. While he, Steve, and the others had been on their own, he'd gotten to know Wanda a little, enough that he was pretty confident he knew the kind of person she was.

He stepped forward, and regarded each of them in turn. "Wanda struck me as a good kid," he said, watching each face for some sort of hint as to their thoughts before he looked up at Clint once more. "Did she say anything about what she was planning on doing with the stones? Did she seem just upset, or like she was going crazy, becoming a terrible person and destroying a planet or something?"

Hawkeye shrugged, and stroked his chin thoughtfully. Bucky brought up good points, he thought. He couldn't deny that. "She is a good kid," he answered finally. "She said something about she was going to put things right again, that she was going to make things like they were supposed to be and fix the broken life we were living now. Maybe I'm crazy, but to me, she just seemed really upset. She was also pretty damned determined. She warned me that I didn't want to get in her way. It didn't sound like a threat, more like when you tell your kid not to lean over the bar too far when you're at Niagara Falls or something."

As everyone seemed to mull that over, Hank looked up from his equipment. "It looks like she somehow warped reality in some way, like maybe folding space so that she could go from here to somewhere else. It'd be kind of like one of those portals our space faring friends use to travel great distances. However she did it, she's upset with a lot of powers we don't understand, and she probably doesn't completely understand them either." He lowered his meter and cracked his neck in a tired sort of way. "So, if she did warp reality to move from here to there, where did she go, do you think?"

"The place where she'd be closest to what's left of the stones," answered Bruce as he rubbed the back of his neck in a pensive manner. "The planet that Thanos called 'The Garden.' It's where he said he destroyed the stones. If she were going to pull them back from wherever they are, that'd be the place to do it."

Wong cleared his throat and added, "Because of the nature of the stones, the universe would crumble without them. So, the old legends have it that the stones would simply reform themselves somewhere in the universe if they were 'destroyed.' But, my money would be on the Garden for where they'd most likely reform since that's where they were scattered."

Clint looked around at each in turn, and then sighed softly. "Then I guess that's where we're going. The Garden it is."


	5. Chapter 5

_**Avengers: Don't Get in My Way**_

**Chapter 5**

Light sprang forth suddenly from a widening bank of localized red and black fog in the midst of alien plants spread out in neat rows outside a simple hut dwelling. The sky was an azure blue, peaceful and serene, and the warm sunlight filtering through the nearly cloudless sky was a comfortable yellowish hue. With the exception of the distinctly otherworldly vegetation in the vicinity, one could easily believe they had materialized in the center of a lush garden.

The flora and fauna that surrounded Wanda Maximoff as she exited the swirl of rapidly dissipating fog was anything but Earthly, however. The leaves were of an odd greenish color, tinged with purple, resembling the leaves of a red cabbage. The fruit growing atop these odd stalks was a dull orange, bulbous and barbed, yet still soft despite the prickly appearance. Around the garden, for there was no better description of the place she found herself in, were jagged ridges of rock that gave the impression of standing among an explosion of life nestled in the bosom of a dead, rocky crater.

Though the world with the strange plant life and oddly close yellow sun was beautiful, and apparently teeming with life, the young woman could feel no presence of any intelligent or animal life at all, not even insects. As far as she could determine, she was the only form of life on the entire planet that didn't spring from and remain rooted to the ground. It was a strange feeling that left her skin tingling and a sharp chill moving down her spine. The planet was unnerving and devoid of the comfort that a subliminal connection with other life all around you brought.

_It feels as if Thanos' chosen sanctuary is as unnatural and devoid of any true meaning or beauty as he himself was,_ she thought as she strode through the garden towards the squat hut at the other end of the long rows of plant life. _An empty and senseless void of a locale perfectly suited for a megalomaniacal and insane piece of walking, breathing shit. How appropriate._

Wanda's face hardened at the silent thunder of thoughts rolling through her mind like an impending storm. Her eyes swept around the expanse of Thanos' chosen home, and she shook her head in near disbelief. She never thought any living thing could be so vacant and feckless, but Thanos seemed to constantly and consistently prove himself to be anything but something you would classify as a being deserving to be dignified by the consideration.

Even the most evil and corrupt person had some tiny spark of _something_ within them that marked them as something you could pity, if you could feel nothing _else_ beyond hatred for them. Thanos didn't have even _that_ tiny, minuscule aspect within him, and in the end, he had reaped what he had sown: blissful nonexistence. It was blissful for the universe, at least. The tragedy was that the universe only finally achieved the bliss of Thanos' nonexistence _after_ he had wrought such atrocity and devastation on the vast infinitude that was the universe.

The doorway to the hut was standing wide open, and she moved to its threshold. Within, the hut was Spartan and utilitarian. There was a bed, a chair, a table, and the necessities for one to maintain a minimal home. Beyond that, there was nothing, nothing but the former inhabitant's body lying sprawled on the floor, surrounded by a pool of dried vile blood. The Mad Titan's head lay several feet from his body. It had been cleaved from its neck with a single decisive cut, and had rolled into a defiantly upright position so that its lifeless eyes stared at her unblinkingly and without a hint of remorse or apology in the dead gaze.

The body of Thanos proved how persistent and pervasive evil truly was. The body had lain there, dead, for over five years and yet the signs of decomposition were minimal, nearly invisible and indiscernible. At casual observation, you could easily believe he was killed only moments ago, rather than years earlier. Even after he had tasted even the _tiniest_ hint of justice, he still managed to gloat unceasingly and torment her without the slightest hint of reprieve. Thanks to him, she lived within a perpetual hell and experienced suffering that no one deserved.

He had taken more that anyone could comprehend from pretty much everyone in the entire universe. Even with the reversal of the Snap, he had _still_ managed to break all those whose lives his insane machinations had touched, even if they weren't aware that their very souls were still very much shattered and fragmented. _She_ knew, though, and she swore that what madness he had done to them all would be _truly_ reversed, taken back and rectified.

She swore this on her very soul, because her soul was useless to her without the things and people that comprised that soul to begin with. True justice _would_ grace the universe with its touch again, no matter what it took, no matter what it might cost her. No price was too high in her mind and heart to put things back as they _should_ be. Even if she had to sacrifice her own eternal soul to save the soul of the universe, so be it. There were far worse ways to lose one's soul. Wanda knew; she'd already lost hers, or at least the part of it that mattered. Whatever was left was coin she was happy to pay to make sure no one else had to endure what she was enduring at that very moment.

Her eyes opened suddenly and her breath rushed in with a harsh gasp. Her body was alive with a current, a surge of power that she could never have imagined. There was a power, a tangible touch of something indescribable wreathing her in its influence. It burned through her entire being, and tingled on every nerve ending of not only her body, but also her very existence. It was close, so close she could taste its essence on the very air like ozone during a harsh thunderstorm.

_Wanda…_

The voice was a whisper, like a ghost on the wind tickling at her mind, but she heard it. She _felt_ it. Her mouth was dry, and her lips felt chapped and cracked. In a rasp born of emotion and fear that all this was some strange hallucination or dream, she called out in a cracking voice, "Viz? Viz, is that you? I'm here, Viz. I'm here. I'm _here_ my… my heart."

_You came… you came for me…_

In the squalor of the hut that had come over it after the death of its inhabitant, Wanda sunk to her knees in ragged spasms, and felt the wall that had been holding her tears at bay crumble and fall away, the battle lost. "Of course I came," she answered, her reply torn by a half sob. "I will _always_ come to you… come for you. There is no me without you, Viz. Without you, there's _nothing…"_ Her words trailed off into a whisper.

_Call me to you, Wanda. Draw me home to you…_

Wanda blinked hot, fat tears from her eyes and searched the area around her with unfocused, unseeing eyes. Her voice cracked again, "How? How do I draw you to me, Viz? Please, tell me _how._ I feel you. How?"

There was silence, and Wanda waited in a panic, blinking away huge tears as fast as they formed in her eyes. The empty pit in her stomach was growing as she desperately waited for a response, _any_ response to her question. Her fingers pulled through her hair, straining the strands against her scalp, and she clawed at her head. Maybe she was going mad. Maybe she was already crazy.

She'd used power she didn't understand to get there, a place light years from where she and Vision had found each other, and what if it was all just a cruel joke played on her by her own mind and tortured grief? What if none of this was real, and she'd stepped the first step on an ever sinking spiral of insanity? What if the loss of Vision had caused the loss of herself as well? What was she without Vision? She had existed before she met Vision, of course. But she had only been _alive_ after Vision had come into her life.

_Feel me… reach out with your heart and feel me… feel me coming to you…_

Wanda sobbed in relief as the voice came back to her after what felt like an infinite expanse of silence. She sniffled deeply, and shook her head so strongly the building tears her eyes held splashed free to fall on her clothing and the floor beneath her. She stretched her hands upwards as her fingers jerked and pulled something intangible and invisible to her, towards her. Her entire body shook and trembled as her hands writhed in the air, and her hands slowly became wreathed in red swirls of light.

"Come to me, Viz. I feel you. I just feel _you…"_ she whispered as the light around her hands intensified and brightened, and she could feel… _something_ drawing closer to her, coming closer, reaching out to her. She couldn't identify what she was feeling, precisely, but she felt it, whatever it was.

Slowly but surely, it was creeping to her closer and closer every second, and she could feel it. It was warm, it was _hot_ and it was hovering right there, so close to her. It was there, and she suddenly could touch it, she could feel its shape and presence. She was no longer alone on the godforsaken planet that Thanos chose as his final home. Joy flooded through her, burned through her tears.

_You did it… I am here, with you… I feel you…_

Wanda felt her body wracked in the shudders and shakes that come on the heels of intense strain, and immense relief, and her eyes fluttered open. She opened them, feeling a smile form on her lips even as her face was streaked with harshly shed tears. She opened them to look upon the face of the other half of her soul, the part of her heart that completed her.

Bright golden light greeted her shimmering and clouded gaze and a new wash of tears flowed over her soft rounded cheeks as the image shimmered into slow clarity. Beyond her outstretched hands, the golden light pulsed and flickered, and finally her eyes focused. The form before her grew more distinct, took shape, and slowly crystallized in her eyes.

As her eyes snapped into focus, she shook her head violently and threw her head back in a loud, long wordless scream. It wasn't Vision that her eyes opened upon. The form she knelt staring at wasn't at all what she expected, what she heard, what she hoped and prayed for, what she desperately needed to see. Hovering over her hands before her was a golden crystal, glittering and shining as it slowly revolved over her outstretched palms. She had called forth the Mind Stone from whatever oblivion it was that Thanos had consigned it and the other stones to.

The stone continued to float before her as she wrapped her arms around her head and fell to her side, shaking, screaming and releasing a torrent of tears and anguish. The inexorable feeling of falling deeper and deeper into a black pit of insanity rushed over her with immeasurable force. "I'm crazy, I'm _crazy,_ I came all the way out here… I thought I was coming for _you…_ it was all a _lie!_ I've lost you, I lost everything, and now I'm losing my mind! Thanos, you son of a bitch, _you fucking son of a bitch!"_ she screamed in heart rending agony. Around her, the hut shuddered and shook with the force of her emotions swirling and ripping through her very soul.

_Wanda… I am not lost… I am not complete, but I am not lost. There is much more to do, still. Only you can do this… we can do what must be done…. But we must gather them all to restore all…_

The cracking walls ceased crumbling, and the clatter of trembling objects stopped as she held her breath for what felt like interminable years. Finally, her strained and anguished voice rushed from between cracked lips, "Wh-what? You… you're not… you're still… you _are_ Viz? All of what? The stones? That's _madness!_ The stones abuse and destroy!"

Her arms came back around her head and she shook violently. Her head shook convulsively beneath the canopy of her arms as she battled desperately to make sense out of what was happening to her. Sobs of despair coupled with screams of pain and rage ripped from her very being as she struggled to hold onto whatever shreds of reality she could grasp.

_I am… and I am not. I am an… aspect of Vision. One of many. But yes, we must gather the stones, all of the stones… you can… we can… eliminate what is and restore what should be, but it will require all of us. If you trust Vision… trust me. Please. What Thanos did was… unnatural. It violated the laws of existence, the laws that form the fabric of the universe. The stones only do what they are used to do. They are primal, elemental forces of nature, of creation or destruction. It is the wielder that determines the path they follow. We must set things right to repair the damage he caused. Call us, all of us, to you…_

Wanda felt her body shaking. She shook with uncertainty, with fear, with disbelief, and she wasn't sure if she were regaining her senses, or if she was spiraling deeper into madness. Was she having a psychotic break, and becoming lost in an inescapable miasma of delirium? Or was justice taking her by the hand and leading her to the door to rectification and salvation?

"If you truly _are_ part of Vision," Wanda said finally as she pulled her arms from around her head. Her eyes spilled another fat tear rolling over her cheek as she focused on the stone. "If you truly are, then I will trust you. I trust Vision with all I am."

X

The stars were little more than brief streaks out light outside the view port as the group that referred to themselves as the Avengers, and a few guests, rocketed on their way through the vast expanse of space. The ship was the same that Tony and Nebula had returned to Earth in after nearly dying in the void of space when Carol Danvers, also known as Captain Marvel, had found them and returned them back to the safety of Earth.

Since then, it had been repaired, retrofitted, and repurposed for the task of carrying the heroes to places where conventional transportation couldn't take them. Going into space qualified as just such an instance. Thankfully, the ship was spacious enough to provide comfortably adequate room for all its passengers, and it was easily sustainable for protracted voyages.

The conversation had fallen into a silence. Each person aboard the ship looked around at each other, and tried to gauge what the other was thinking. There was an uneasy tension in the air, and finding the proper way to say what was on their minds was becoming increasingly difficult. The subject was too volatile and too much of a hotbed to simply start spouting out opinions, everyone realized.

Finally, Rhodey drew a deep breath and let it out. His eyes moved over everyone in turn, and he shrugged. "Okay, if nobody's going to say it, I guess I'm going to have to," he said finally with a slight sound of exasperation in his voice. "We have to at least consider what state of mind Wanda is in at the moment. She may have simply gone nuts, or she may have a much darker intention. Either way, it seems more likely than not that this is going to become a problem, a really _big_ problem. We have to face that fact, and face it now."

"What are you trying to say, Rhodey?" asked Sam, suddenly standing from where he'd been sitting on a bench halfway across the room. "Are you trying to say Wanda's freaked out, gone nuts, and is going to obliterate us if we get in her way? Is that what you're trying to say?"

Doctor Stephen Strange scowled and shook his head slowly. "It's something we have to consider, people," he finally said. "I think it's more than obvious that Miss Maximoff's grip on reality is tenuous at best. Can anyone here really say for certain what her reaction to us showing up is going to be? Are you willing to bet your life, and the lives of everyone else on this ship, on whether or not you think you know what's going to happen?"

The others fell silent for a moment, while all eyes were on Strange. Carol cut her eyes over to Thor, who was calmly leaning against a bulkhead with his hands folded over the top of Stormbreaker, his massive axe. Her brows rose slightly and she turned her attention back to the conversation, discussion, whatever you wanted to call it in silent interest.

Sighing in exasperation, Clint stood up and glanced around the room before he came to stand toe to toe with Strange. "So, you're saying we should all just assume that she's gone nuts, and that she's going to just decide to blast us because it sounds like the best way to spend her Friday night, so we all should just hop off the ship ready and willing to take her down? Never mind that she's a kid, she's a friend, and she's feeling like shit and needing help, instead of a fight? Yeah, that approach will just give her all kinds of fuzzy good feelings," he said with a half glare directed at the sorcerer. "She'll be sure to throw us a tea party afterwards, too, huh?"

Hank let out a long sigh in a somewhat irritated tone, and gave his wife's hand a squeeze before he interjected, "Kid or not, Barton, she's an extremely powerful kid who can obviously do things we can't even be sure of, one way or the other. With that kind of power, she's dangerous simply by the virtue of having that sort of power, especially with the state of mind she's in. The slightest thing could set her off, probably without any of us even realizing that it could, and then we'd all be in danger." He took his glasses off and started cleaning them with obvious agitated energy.

Rhodey waved a hand towards Strange and Hank with an expression that said far more than words alone would. "Besides, didn't you say she almost demolished your house and could have killed you and your family right before you called?" he asked. His expression hardened and his eyes narrowed. "Those were _your_ words, Clint. Nobody's putting that coming out of your mouth but you."

"Exactly my point," Hank picked up, despite Janet's grip on his arm trying to silence him without being rude about it. "The kind of power she's got, she could kill all of us, probably. She _warped reality itself_ to step through a hole in space outside your farm and come out on a planet halfway across the galaxy. If she can do that, if she could pull your house apart at the seams without blinking an eye, what do you think she could do to us if she _wanted_ to hurt us? I'm not saying we should try to hurt her, but we should be realistic and be aware that there's a very real possibility she could decide she needed to hurt us, especially if her judgment is compromised. You yourself said she was behaving erratically and unpredictably. Being prepared to fight is just smart thinking."

A voice from behind them shut down any further comments for a few seconds. "That's assuming we even _could_ hurt her," Bruce said as he stepped around to find a seat in the central cabin behind the control center and cockpit of the ship. "Wanda has always been powerful. She's never known the full extent of her potential. Since she came back, she's shown a _vast_ increase in her power levels and her abilities. She fought Thanos to a standstill by herself, even before Carol joined in, while he had _all_ the stones. She hurt him. She didn't annoy him, she _hurt_ him and _scared_ him. Except for Carol, maybe, I don't think any of the rest of us could do that. I know the Hulk sure as hell couldn't do that. Thanos stomped my ass six ways from Sunday on the Asgardian ship like I was next to nothing."

Hank stood and ran his fingers back through his thick salt and pepper hair and began pacing as the discussion continued. Janet looked at everyone else, and then stood to try to calm her husband down.

Bruce sighed, and looked around the room at all of them in turn. "But, this is Wanda," he said in a solemn voice with a somber expression. "Just because she _could_ hurt us without much effort at all, I honestly don't believe she _would,_ whether she's out of her mind with pain and grief or not. It's just not who Wanda is, and we're her family now."

Strange frowned deeper and drew in a slow, deep breath. He shook his head, amazed at the apparent naïveté the others were displaying. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "But you can't say that unequivocally," he said, casting a sidelong glance towards Bruce. "Right now, she probably wouldn't hurt us, like you say. But if she gets her hands on the stones, assuming the stones can even be recovered, and I'm of the mind that they _are_ reforming somewhere in the universe as Wong is… we've already seen how the stones corrupted Thanos and the sort of chaos and destruction he caused as a result. If the same happens to her… then the scale of threat we're facing would astronomically increase."

"Hey, hey, hey!" exclaimed Clint with a furious expression as he stepped forward and pointed a finger right in the Sorcerer Supreme's face. His eyes burned with anger like the sun. "Thanos was already a crazy and corrupted bastard long before he ever laid a finger on the first stone. Stones or no stones, Wanda is our friend. She's _my_ friend. And I promise you as surely as God made little green apples, if you make anything even _resembling_ a move to hurt her without her giving us a _damned_ good reason to try to take her down, magic or no goddamned magic, I'll put an arrow between your eyes without thinking twice or losing a second's sleep over it, Gandalf."

"I'm with Clint," Bucky said after having sat in silence the whole time until that point. He swept his gaze over the rest of them as he flexed the fingers of his mechanical left arm absently. "If anything, Wanda deserves our help, or at least us _trying_ to help her. She spent most of her life as a street kid, alone with only her brother to keep her company, and she lost him in a violent and senseless way. Then Thanos came along and she lost Vision and the others. We're the only family she's got left, and we're damned well going to _treat_ her like the family she is."

Strange stared at Clint, trying to stare him down, but wasn't having much luck. Clint wasn't going to back down, that much was obvious. As much as the sorcerer's ego pushed at him to try to convey a superior attitude and seem dismissive of the archer, his mind won out. He knew that if Clint and he were to clash, Clint wouldn't be as easy to subdue as one might think. More, Clint was the type to harbor a grudge, and wasn't likely to let it go any time soon.

"Yeah, well, everybody needs family," a voice piped up as a furry large raccoon climbed up onto a seat. Rocket jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the small group assembled in a small cluster there. "Even if your family is like this group of yay hoos."

"I am Groot!" exclaimed the sentient tree creature standing among the group that Rocket indicated with his thumb jab. "I am Groooot!" The tree's tone was indignant and its brows, for lack of a better term, pulled down over its eyes in a glare.

Rocket shrugged, and scratched the back of his neck, "Sorry, Groot, but you know what I mean. You guys are my family, all the family I've got, and yeah… maybe we're a strange bunch, but show me a family that _isn't_ a strange bunch, you know?" He reached out a small hand and patted the shoulder of the tree.

Groot smiled and nodded his wooden head slowly. "I am Groot," he agreed with a placated tone.

"The sweet rabbit's right," Thor said finally as he pushed off from the bulkhead he'd been leaning against for most of the trip. "Wanda is young, and she's feeling an enormous amount of pain and grief, much more than she's probably known in the past. Worse, it's all come at once, wave upon wave."

Confusion flowed over several of the faces present in the room, and Rhodey looked around at everyone and whispered, "Rabbit? What rabbit? Is he talking about the raccoon?"

"Yeah, he's talking about the 'raccoon,' Tin Man," growled Rocket with more than a little irritation in his voice, and quite loudly in contrast to Rhodey's whisper. He then turned to regard each of the humans and aliens in the room. "And he's the _only_ moron on this ship that's allowed to call me that, unless you want a few dozen blaster bolts to munch on, got it?"

"I am so happy, Rocket, that Thor and I are the only ones that can call you 'rabbit,'" the large bald humanoid named Drax said with a wide dull smile. He lightly slapped the furry alien on the back with a large hand.

Rocket clenched his eyes and fists shut as she shook in barely repressed anger. "I said he was the _only_ moron on this ship that could call me that, Numb Nuts," growled Rocket with a tight jawed stare.

"Exactly," beamed Drax, apparently unaware of Rocket's consternation. "He's the only moron that can call you that. Then, of course, there's me. I'm not a moron so I can call you rabbit."

Rocket curled in on himself and shook so bad, the rest of the passengers were afraid he was going to explode, or tear through the hull of the ship and rocket into space. With barely restrained rage, Rocket roared, "You're a moron too, you idiot! So, _no_ you _can't_ call me rabbit, goddamnit!"

The young human man that stood among that particular group reached over and laid a hand on Drax's large forearm. "Dude, don't even try to figure it out. Just don't call him rabbit, keep calling him Rocket, and don't worry about any of the rest of it. It's a lot easier for everybody that way," he whispered to the big man. "Otherwise, he'll flip out and have a meltdown."

Drax looked at Rocket, then over to Quill and tilted his head, whispering back, "We don't want him to have a meltdown. But what if he has a melt up instead?" Those unfamiliar with Drax and his species just watched and listened in stupefied silence, wondering what exactly was happening as the idioms went completely over the big man's head.

"'_Melt up?'_ I'll show you a goddamned meltdown _and_ melt up, you overgrown ball sac! Come here!" yelled Rocket as he drew his very large gun and cocked the safety off as he took aim at his befuddled teammate. "I'm gonna widen your cake hole, you bald headed, lumbering…!"

Gamora, the green skinned woman that was also Rocket's teammate stepped between him and the oblivious Drax. "Rocket!" she yelled as she slapped his gun aside. "Calm down! Thor's the only one that can call you rabbit. We get it. Give it a while, Drax will get it soon enough. In the meantime, just ignore him. You usually do anyway, so what's so hard about doing it now?"

"He's a goddamned _idiot!"_ yelled Rocket in protest as he slid the safety back into the active position on his weapon with an exaggerated pout. "You'd think after six fucking years, he'd get something _that_ simple at least! Fine! I won't shoot the stupid ball sac. _This_ time. He does it again, and all bets are off. You hear me, Cue Ball? All bets are _off!"_

Groot reached up and patted his friend's shoulder with a sympathetic gesture and quietly said, "I am Groot."

Rocket scowled and hopped down off the seat again. "Yeah, yeah, I know," he grumbled as he found a place far away from the center of the chamber to climb up and start cleaning his weapon with more gusto than was necessary. "He can't help being a fuckin' moron, I know. It doesn't make him any smarter, that's for damned sure."

Carol watched everyone quietly, which was mostly uncharacteristic for her. Usually, she had something to say about pretty much anything, but thus far she'd been unusually quiet during the trip. She checked the instruments even as the ship came out of hyper light speed. "We're coming up on 0295-S, also known as the Garden. I'll fly down and do some recon. We don't want to waste time if she isn't even here," she said as she started glowing a bright yellowish color.

"Thank you, Carol," said Bruce with a faint smile. He stood up and began prepping for the trip to the surface. "Just be careful, okay? She's going through a lot, we all are, but as Thor said, I don't think she's ever had so much bad stuff pile up on her all at once like this. We'll want to play it by ear, you know?"

The Kree hybrid smiled and patted the big green man's shoulder. "Don't worry, Green Jeans," she said with a playful smirk. Her face sobered as she nodded while cycling the airlock. "Wanda and I talked some after the battle. I think we got fairly comfortable with each other. Comfortable enough that she won't hurl the planet at me, I hope."

She popped Bruce in the shoulder again fondly, and then stepped into the airlock and let it seal before flying out into space. Within seconds, the bright yellow light of her trail shot towards the beautiful planet below. Bruce couldn't help wondering what exactly they'd find down there, especially if Wanda was there after all.

X

The fifth stone finally coalesced before her as she drew it slowly and steadily from the void in which it had been floating. Like the others, it rotated slowly before her as it held itself suspended in the air. She felt the fatigue starting to creep up on her, but she still had far too much work to do. She had to retrieve the final stone, and then prepare to begin her mission to set things right once more. It would be taxing and dangerous, but it was necessary. She couldn't live with herself if she didn't repair the damage Thanos had done to all life and reality throughout the universe.

_We are almost reunited. Only one remains to be retrieved…_

"Yes, Viz, we're almost done collecting them. It won't be long now. It won't be long, my love," Wanda said in an almost dreamlike voice. The light played over her eyes in a sharply refractive manner, and it gave them an eerie back lit illumination. It would all be worth it very soon.

_Only one remains… Then we can correct that which has been damaged and twisted…_

Each stone floated equidistant from each other before her, and the light caught their facets, sending sparkles of light playing all about her as the sun slowly moved towards the horizon. It had taken hours to get this far, to draw the stones from their remote locations where they had reformed to where she was there in Thanos' hut beside his garden. At the end of the line, a shimmering light rippled, and within it, the vaguest sheen of the final stone slowly built itself within its light. Soon, she would hold all six stones, and wield the power necessary to return the shape of all things back to its proper form.

_They have arrived… They are coming to meet you, Wanda…_

The silence in between their conversation had given Wanda enough time to allow herself to rest minimally, to conserve energy as she drew the stone an atom at a time from its rebirth position to where she called it. She still didn't understand how or why she was able to do such a thing, all she knew is that she was able to, and was doing it. How could she argue with the fact that what she was doing was good and right when she was doing what should have been impossible?

She drew in a slow breath and nodded softly. "I know," she replied to the voice in her mind. "I felt them arrive. I felt Carol come close to confirm my being here. I hope they'll be happy that I can repair the damage done, and return those to us that we shouldn't have lost. We can all be happy, we can have our friends again, and I… I can have _you_ back in my arms, where you belong, where you should always have been."

_There is the possibility that they may perceive what you intend to do as the wrong thing to do… They may attempt to dissuade you or prevent you from restoring what should be…_

Wanda shook her head firmly as the stone continued to slowly materialize in its floating setting. "I would hope not," she said with a soft tone. "I know this is the right thing to do, this is what should be done. How could they not know this, too?"

_They believe that they will be protecting you and that they will be saving you from yourself… They will naively believe that because they do not understand, it must be something that will result only in catastrophe… They will attempt to convince you of this as well. You must do what you feel you must. You must follow the course that your heart and soul set for you, Wanda…_

Silence lingered as Wanda continued to concentrate on pulling the final gem to her. She felt a deep and lingering sadness welling up inside her. Something within her stirred and swirled, and intertwined with the fear that she would be misunderstood.

_They will believe that you have fallen to madness… They will believe that your righteous mission to restore the true state of the universe is a delusion… They will believe that bringing Mr. Stark, Natasha, and the others, as well as myself back is a dream driven by your inability to cope with reality… They will try to "help" you… They will not understand… It is unfortunate, but you must not allow them to turn you from your task. The universe and what should be must be salvaged. Only you can do this…_

Wanda wiped sad tears from her eyes and sniffled, even as she shook her head adamantly. "No, you'll see. They will see the truth. They'll know. They'll be scared at first, frightened that its beyond all hope, but they'll come around. They'll see that I _have_ to do this, that it's the right thing to do. They'll see the truth. You'll see, my love, you'll see," she said as the beatific smile returned to her lips. The final stone was almost manifest.

_It is my sincerest hope that you are correct, Wanda… We shall see… The time is quickly approaching that will reveal the truth of their belief and actions… They simply do not and will not understand… not until it has been done and they see the goodness that you will work to repair reality itself…_

The voice and presence faded, as it had several times since she had started feeling Vision's presence in her mind, and she concentrated on completing the transition of the final stone. It still had some time yet to go, but every second brought it that much closer to being completed.

Clint turned and held up a hand at the large group of companions that accompanied him to where Wanda was. Just ahead, she was doing something with the stones. All of them but one was visible, floating in the air near the young woman, and it looked as if it was slowly joining its companion pieces. They'd all heard her speaking, yet they didn't see whom she may have been speaking to.

Doctor Strange opened his mouth as he stepped forward, giving the distinct impression he was about to confront Wanda in a less than friendly manner. Clint slapped his hand flat over the sorcerer's chest and shook his head. The mage nodded reluctantly and stayed where he was. Bucky took up a position next to the Sorcerer Supreme, and made no mystery of his intention to hold him back if he tried to act without their go ahead.

Clint moved forward and tried to smile in a friendly manner as he approached his friend. "Hey there, Wanda," he said in his normal congenial tone. "You've got a really good idea for a spot to have some alone time. Out here, you're about as alone as you can get." Though he was trying to be natural and relaxed, he couldn't help being on guard just a little.

Wanda barely glanced in their direction. Her hands kept weaving the strange patterns she used when her powers were in use, and the red energy swirled about her hands and the stones in vivid light. "Hey, Clint," she answered with a faint smile. Though she didn't stop what she was doing, she turned to look towards the group of her friends. "Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Garden."

The others nodded and murmured greetings, but let Clint take the lead. "So… you know me, I don't like to be nosy, but I have to ask," Clint began, looking rather sheepish as he scratched the back of his neck with a nervous tic. "Who's going to see, and what are they going to see? What is it that you have to do, anyway? Any way we can help?"

Wanda wiped her nose with the cloth she'd been keeping inside her jacket pocket lately. It was obvious that she'd been crying recently and pretty badly if the severity of her sniffles was any indication. She smiled a wan smile and nodded her head in a gesture intended to indicate where they were.

"Viz, of course," she answered in a light tone that Clint hadn't heard in her voice for some time. "He thinks that you won't understand what I have to do, and why I have to do it. He thinks your fear of the unknown will interfere with your ability to understand. Viz _hopes_ you understand, but you know how he is. His equations tell him it's most likely that you won't, not at first. It'll take time, but I told him I believed you may all be frightened at first, but you'd see soon. You'd get it, you'd understand."

Clint glanced over his shoulder a moment at his companions. Bruce wore a concerned expression and shook his head slowly. Despite himself, Clint agreed. It was obvious even to him that Wanda wasn't thinking clearly. Just admitting it to himself hurt him in his soul. He had been hoping against hope that Wanda was coping with her grief better than this. Sadness sprung from deep inside him like a geyser, and it threatened to find its way to the surface in his eyes and voice.

"So, um, Vision's here, huh?" he asked as he choked back the crack in his voice, though he knew some of it came through. "How long has he been here with you?" He kept an eye on what she was doing with the stones. The last stone was getting alarmingly close to being solid.

Wanda glanced back at him, and tilted her head while the smile remained on her lips. "Not exactly, no," she answered as she found his eyes with her own. "Part of him is. The Mind Stone is part of him, but he's part of it, too. He's been helping me understand what I have to do, and how I have to do it. It won't be long now, not long at all. We're going to fix things, we're going to put things back to the way they _should_ be."

The final stone finally solidified and she let her hands be still. They continued to float as they were, but the red energy Wanda exuded faded from sight. "We're going to bring them back, Clint. All of them. Viz, Nat, Tony… _all_ of them. All that weren't supposed to die in Thanos' madness before and after the Snap will be back as if they'd never left. Our hearts and souls will finally be at peace and able to live, instead of stagnate as they have been. Morgan won't be without her father, Pepper won't be without her husband, we won't be without Nat, Bruce will finally be able to continue living instead of existing, and me? I'll be complete for the first time since Viz was taken from me."

Clint was stunned. They'd all talked about this, about how this was probably what Wanda was up to, and he'd allowed himself to at least accept the possibility of what the others were saying, that it was impossible and dangerous. Standing there, looking into her eyes, though, he saw the belief that she could do it in her eyes, and he _believed_ she could as well.

He knew they weren't going to buy it, but the more he watched her and listened to her, the more he believed it, despite the fact she was sounding a little looney tunes saying she was talking to Vision. Yet, they'd seen much crazier stuff than that hadn't they? This was actually pretty tame in the grand scheme of things, especially seeing the sort of things that Thanos did with the stones, and the sorts of things Wanda could do on her own. What could she possibly do with the stones in her possession as well? _Anything, that's what._

Doctor Strange strode forward, unable to stay quiet any longer. He brushed off Bucky's attempt to keep him in place, and stood beside Clint. He fixed her with his arrogant gaze and a condescending tone colored his words, "Wanda… you do realize how utterly insane that sounds, right? The fabric of reality and the universe is a delicate and fragile thing. There's a natural order that must be maintained. What you're talking about would rip all of that asunder like tissue paper. Do you honestly believe that's the 'right' thing to do?"

Clint's face turned red, as he grew livid. It was all he could do not to punch Strange in the mouth as hard as he possibly could. "_Fuck!_ Goddamnit, Strange, didn't you hear a word I said earlier? I told you not to fucking push her, not to attack her. We had a chance before you opened your goddamned big assed mouth. I hope you're fucking happy now," he whispered in a harsh tone. "Fucking prick."

Wanda stood and her face hardened as she leveled her stare at the sorcerer. The anger simmered just under the surface, and Clint could see it in her eyes as surely as he could see the sun in the sky. Her mood had shifted from friendly to hostile fast enough to give someone watching whiplash.

She narrowed her eyes slowly as she waved a hand and the stones flew to her and took up positions in a circle floating around her hand and wrist. The stones glowed softly as they seated themselves in their psionic sockets. Wanda's lips twisted in a light smile.

"Funny you should mention the fabric of reality and the universe, and the Natural Order of Things, sorcerer," she said with seething venom in her voice. "Every spell you cast, every little nudge you give things, every little sparkle of your magic violates the fabric of reality and the universe, and shakes the natural order," she said shooting daggers at him with her eyes. "According to you self appointed guardians of the universe, that's perfectly acceptable to your self righteous defense of those forces. Yet, when it's not you or yours, suddenly it's a cataclysmic event. That's a rather biased prejudice, isn't it, mage?"

Strange scowled deeper and shook his head. "My order does exactly that, we protect this dimension and the forces of the universe and reality from _all_ threats," he declared. "Sadly, that includes you, Miss Maximoff. I'd much rather that it didn't, but you're the one making yourself a threat. I'm trying to talk you out of such a reckless path. I'm on your side, whether you choose to believe me or not. But rending the very stuff that existence is made from isn't the way to do what you want to do. If I have a biased prejudice, it's directed towards safeguarding our reality, not towards allowing its annihilation."

Wanda's head tilted as her gaze washed over the group at large, and she held up her hands as if to encompass all of them. "And the rest of you? Are you giving in to your fear and lack of understanding and calling yourselves 'on my side' as well? Or are you willing to actually witness and consider what I propose, and try to work through your fear to the understanding I know that you can find as you allow yourself to see?" she asked the remainder of the group. The stones started spinning around her hand and glowing brighter.

Bruce moved forward a bit, but kept his posture neutral rather than aggressive. Though he trusted Wanda wouldn't hurt him, he didn't want to take a chance on provoking her while she was this angry _and_ in the possession of all six Infinity Stones. "We _are_ on your side, Wanda," he said in a sympathetic tone. "We want to believe you, we want to understand and see the truth in what you're trying to do. In order for us to do that, though, we need you to be patient and understanding. It's hard wired into humanity to fear what it doesn't understand. Please, help us to understand what you're trying to do. Don't demand for us to understand or try to make us understand. Just help us to understand, okay?"

She nodded, but turned her attention back to Doctor Strange. Her attention wasn't by any means flattering now. "You obviously aren't interested in understanding, in gaining enlightenment for a greater understanding of the forces you purport yourself to be a master of," she said in a cold, quiet tone. "Since you aren't, there's nothing productive in listening to your condescension any further. It's time for you to drop out of this conversation, Doctor."

She raised her left fist, circled by the stones, and closed her fist. The stones glowed brightly, their light illuminating the area around her like a spotlight. Strange called out in surprise as the Cloak of Levitation he wore suddenly wrapped around his body tightly, binding him as effectively as any other form of restraint. In addition, it wrapped itself hard around his mouth to silence him. He was unable to move, or utter a single sound. He toppled over and fell to the lush ground in silence.

Her gaze turned towards her friends and teammates once more, and the stones swirled around her hand even faster. Clint hurriedly glanced over his shoulder and back at the young woman. He held his hands out towards her, palms open and smiled nervously. "Hey… Wanda…" he drawled out slowly. "Take it easy, okay? It's us, its okay. Let's all just calm down and you can tell us what you're planning, okay?"

Wanda's eyes started to glow a deep red, and Bruce called out, "She's not listening at the moment. We're going to have to subdue her. Don't hurt her, but we need to calm her down so we can all talk civilly."

"Subdue me, Bruce?" she asked with a voice echoing and rumbling like thunder. "Are you truly foolish enough to believe that you can? You'll understand soon, I promise you will. But for right now, you're not ready to accept the truth yet. I told you that you didn't want to get in my way. I don't want to hurt you, any of you. I _won't_ hurt you. But I won't let you keep me from doing what I must, either."

Carol let her power come to the fore, and she glowed brilliantly as she flew rapidly towards Wanda. "Sorry, Wanda, but I can't let you do that," she said in a sincerely sorrowful tone as she managed to grapple the Sokovian woman into a submission hold, even as the others advanced on her. "We know you don't want to hurt anybody, or get hurt yourself. So, come on, please… settle down and let's talk about this like adults? You can even leave that pompous ass Strange trussed up while we do."

Thor spun Stormbreaker rapidly, and then directed the axe towards Wanda, allowing the lightning he called from the sky to arc out towards her. "This will only stun you for a moment, Wanda. Please, listen to reason. We don't want to fight you."

The lightning scattered around her, arcing around her in bluish white branches of pure electrical energy, but as quickly as Thor had directed them her way, Wanda pulled them all to a central point, and the energy dissipated as if it were never there. He'd never seen anything like it. Even Thanos hadn't performed such an act while he had the stones against him.

He hefted Stormbreaker, considering trying it again, because it seemed to have stunned her for a moment, but he was sure she would be ready for a second attempt. He didn't have to worry about making the choice, however. Before he could react, his grip on Stormbreaker proved to work against him.

The stones glowed and suddenly, Stormbreaker shot into the air like a comet, dragging Thor along with it. He yelped in surprise and tried to redirect the axe, but it was if it had a mind of its own. Deducing that Wanda was in control, he tried to release his grip, and figured he'd call Stormbreaker back later, but he was unable to loosen his fingers. He was forced to keep a firm grip on his axe. Try as he might, he couldn't let go.

The others saw what she was doing and followed Bruce's decision to rush her, hoping she wouldn't be able to focus on dealing with all of them at once. Carol still had her in the grapple, so they thought they might stand a chance if they could keep her off balance.

Wanda still struggled with Carol, and saw the others coming at her fast. "I told you, I won't hurt you, but I can't let you stop me, either," she called out. Her voice sounded truly apologetic and her expression was no longer angry, but seemed more sad than anything.

Just before any of them could get to her, they were all frozen in place, unable to move. It was as if time stopped around them, only they were still aware. Carol redoubled her efforts to try to take Wanda down without hurting her, but Wanda clenched her fist and Carol faded from sight as if she were a ghost. In the blink of an eye, the Kree warrior was gone.

Finally free of the grip that Carol had her in, Wanda raised her hand and clenched her fist again as the stones flashed once more. The entire group, including Strange, disappeared into nothingness, leaving Clint standing alone before Wanda.

"Wanda… what did you do?" he cried out in shock, even as he jerked his head around, trying to find even the tiniest sign of his teammates. "Where are they? What did you do to them?"

Wanda shook her head softly, and her lips curled into a soft, gentle smile. "There's nothing to worry about, Clint. I promised I wouldn't hurt any of them. I sent Carol back home, to Earth. I put the ship in orbit, about to leave and head back to Earth as well, and that's where all the others are."

Clint released a held breath in relief. "Oh, thank God. I was afraid you'd gotten angry and decided you weren't in such a nice mood after all. I should have known better. That's not who you are. I know better than that."

"I meant what I said about wanting you all to understand, and to see the truth in what I'm doing. I want so much for you all to understand, and to accept the gifts that I'm going to bring to all of you," Wanda said. Her voice was sad, yet hopeful at the same time. "I swear to you, on Vision and Pietro's lives, I'm _not_ crazy. I know what I'm doing, and I know how it has to seem. I need you to know, Clint. I need you to believe in me and trust me. Please?"

He searched her eyes even as she searched his. He wasn't sure what he was seeing in them, but his gut told him that if nothing else, she believed what she was telling him. Maybe she was crazy, maybe she wasn't. He couldn't say for sure one way or the other. Either way, she was still the same girl that he saw as a little sister. He wanted to believe her, to believe in her and trust her as much as she wanted him to.

"Aw, hell," he said finally, laughing softly despite not knowing why he was doing so. "Even if you _are_ crazy, I still believe in you and trust you, Wanda. I don't understand any of this shit, its _all_ batshit crazy to me. I think I understand _you_ though. I hope I do, anyway. Crazy or not, I know you have to do this, I know you _need_ to try. I trust you with the stones. It's not you or in you to be anything like Thanos. So, that being said… I hope you're right, kiddo. I pray you're right."

He reached out, drew her into a tight hug, and patted her back lightly. "Go do what you have to do, Wanda," he said as they withdrew from the hug. "I'm rooting for you, you know that, right? I'll see if I can't try and make some sense out of all this to them. They want to believe in you and trust you too. Well, maybe not that asshat Strange, but the rest, yeah. Take care of yourself, okay? You know where to find me if you need me. I'm always right here."

"I know," she said with a wistful smile. She returned the hug with a tight embrace, and when they pulled back, she leaned up and kissed his cheek lightly. She held his face lightly in her hands for a moment, and smiled up at him. In a soft voice, she whispered, _"YA lyublyu tebe, starshyy brate._ Give my love to Laura and the kids, and take care of yourselves. All of you."

He nodded lightly, and she closed her fist slowly, the gems glowed brightly and he faded from sight. She stretched out her senses using the stones, and made sure he was safe and sound aboard the ship with the others, and well on his way back to Earth. She smiled wistfully again and the Space Stone glowed again. She stepped into the fog and was gone in an instant. It was time to begin her work.

**AN** \- Once more, I used Google Translate on the phrase she said to Clint at the end there. The translation is "I love you, big brother." Once more, I apologize if the program butchered the beautiful Ukrainian phrasing. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	6. Chapter 6

_**Avengers: Don't Get in My Way**_

**Chapter 6**

**New Avengers Facility, Upstate New York — May 29, 2015**

Almost three weeks after the Battle of Sokovia, as the news outlets were calling it, Wanda laid her book aside on the bed and sighed. Her head rested against the padded headboard as she looked around the room. Even as recently as a month ago, she never imagined being in a place such as this. The United States was very different from the small Eastern European country of her birth, and her life until now. The buildings, the rooms, the very feeling in the air were very different from what she was accustomed to. Most of those she had known in Novi Grad, the capital of Sokovia, could only have dreamed of such a place.

Finally, her restlessness caught up with her. She bounced up from the bed, and went to the very large window that overlooked the grounds. There were no bars, or anything so obvious, but she suspected there was some sort of containment measures in place. It made sense to her, after all, just a month ago, she had hated the people in this building. Then came Ultron, the battle, and her realization that the mad machine was truly as deranged as any human could be. It was during this galvanizing event that her entire belief system was turned upside down, and she came to discover those that she had always believed were her enemies were closer to friends than the people she typically thought of as friends were.

Just a month ago, she had lost Pietro during the battle. She had lost her twin brother. She had lost the only person left alive that truly meant anything to her. Everyday her entire life, he had been there, by her side. No one stood next to her now; she was truly and utterly alone, even in a building full of these new people that wanted to be her friends. These were people that she had fought alongside against the machine that seemed to share her belief in the corruption she imagined ran rampant within those same people. These were people that had fought the crazed robot at her side along with her brother.

Tears welled up within her eyes and her shoulders shook with the release of the sadness that washed over her like the tide. She watched the training groups below through eyes clouded over with the salty liquid of her tears. Wanda wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to warm the cold, hollow feeling that lived within her, but it was no use. Nothing seemed to banish that feeling, not completely. It didn't matter how many friends she would make, it didn't matter who those friends were or what they would come to mean to her, there would always be an emptiness inside her that couldn't be filled. The void that losing Pietro left in her heart was a void destined to remain unfilled for the rest of her life.

Bowing her head, she covered her face with her hands and let her feelings out. Tears rolled between her fingers as she sobbed quietly. The young woman sniffed loudly as she stood before the window, letting the tears go until they finally would come no more, at least not for now. They would never truly be gone, she thought.

"Miss Maximoff," said a voice behind her in a soft and quiet tone.

The door hadn't opened and no one had come through the window she knew. The abrupt and sudden voice startled her. She whirled rapidly, her hands at the ready, prepared to defend herself. The red energies that were the hallmark of her powers flickered and flowed about her fingers. Her face contorted in an odd mixture of despair, pain, fear, and anger.

"How _dare_ you just wa—" she began, the anger dripping from each word. It was then that her eyes settled on the speaker that had so startled her. It was the red skinned android that Ultron had intended to be his final body, but instead became its own entity. It was the _machine_ that she had seen annihilation within its mind when it lay dormant, but after it had gained what passed for life and she had confronted it, it had asked her to look once more and discern what were his thoughts and intentions then.

She again looked into its… _his_ mind, and had seen the truth that she had already seen in his eyes. This android… this _man_ was not the insane, murderous, maniacal thing that his creator had been. He was different. He was something she couldn't put into words.

The synthezoid tilted his head quizzically, and regarded her in what seemed to be genuine confusion. His face softened into an almost sheepish expression.

"I… apologize if I have offended you, or have made you uncomfortable," he said in that same soft tone. His eyes never wavered from hers. "That was not my intention. I merely wished to… I thought to… if you are hungry and would like companionship while you consume your meal, I would be pleased to join you, if you would wish such a thing, of course."

_I must be imagining things,_ she thought as she stared in both wonder and confusion at the person standing in front of her. He wasn't a real person, but he wasn't exactly a mechanical contrivance, either. _He actually sounds as if he has true feelings. He seems honestly upset that he thinks he offended or hurt me. Is such a thing even possible?_

Uncomfortable silence lingered between them as they stood looking at each other. The entire time, his eyes remained riveted to hers. After a few moments, he blinked as if he were sad and nervous and dropped his gaze to the floor at her side.

"I had not considered that you may be experiencing a moment of private emotions. Such things are rather… unpredictable. I apologize once more, and leave you to your privacy," he said finally when she hadn't answered him. He turned and started towards the door so that she might have the privacy she obviously needed.

His expression was one of sorrow, but also something else. _He looks like a defenseless puppy that I just viciously kicked,_ she thought as he started to turn away from her. Her own expression fell. _That was cruel of me. He meant nothing by it, except concern, and I hurt him. Have I truly sunk so deeply into grief and pain that I lash out horribly against someone that is just trying to make me feel better?_

He paused as her hand suddenly shot out and gently restrained him by the arm. She looked up into his eyes and felt a cold spike of regret stabbing up through her very soul at her behavior. "Viz… Vision, wait. Please. Wait for me to say something?"

Once more, his head tilted to the side as he regarded her. His brows rose with a gentle motion as he let her touch halt his movement, and he felt the extreme and unfamiliar jolt that it sent though his entire being. Since his first sight of her, since he had felt her touch his mind while he lay incomplete, she was a fascinating and compelling presence. The young woman filled his every thought for some inexplicable reason. He would have to research that later, he thought. At that moment, he lacked the knowledge required.

When the synthezoid turned, but remained silently looking at her as if waiting, she pressed on with a nervous gaze downward, "I'm sorry. That was… that was mean. I can't believe I acted that way. I normally would never…"

"Miss Maximoff," he began as he hesitantly moved as if he was going to touch her, but stopped short of the contact. "You are experiencing emotional trauma. I should have factored that into my decision to come inquire as to your need for, or lack of, company. It was rude of me to intrude upon you. I apologize."

"_Wanda,"_ she blurted out as her eyes suddenly flew back up to look at his face once more. She drew in a deep breath and released it slowly, trying to regain her bearings. "You can call me Wanda, if you want, Vision.

"But 'emotional trauma' or not, you did _nothing_ to deserve that kind of treatment. And you weren't rude," she finally got out, but this time her gaze remained on him. "You were only trying to help, to maybe make me feel better, and I treated you badly and unfairly. I'm sorry, Vision."

The android kept his gaze fixed on her in silence for several moments that felt like an eternity to Wanda before he finally tilted his head once more.

"Wanda," he said with a thoughtful tone. "If you like, I can call you that. I would be honored to use your given name. It is quite… your name is beautiful." He hesitated a moment, and gestured with his hands as if he were going to say something else, and finally continued, "You do not have to call me Vision. You may… you may call me…"

Wanda blushed slightly as he remarked that her name was beautiful, and her eyes fell to the floor for a moment before coming back up. Was he simply repeating a canned compliment that he had heard or read somewhere, or was he expressing a genuine fondness for the sound of her name?

It was her turn to tilt her head and regard him quizzically. "What would you like me to call you?" she asked, curious as to what he'd say.

Again, there was a momentary silence, and then he responded, "You called me something earlier, when you stopped me. What was it? 'Viz,' I believe?" The color of his eyes seemed to not only sparkle, but shift in hue at random moments.

She nodded and let a slight quirking of the corners of her lips come on as she answered, "Yes, I guess I did. I didn't mean to assu—"

"It would please me greatly if you were to call me Viz. It is more manageable in conversation than 'Vision' I believe."

He had interrupted her, something she had never heard him do to anyone before, but his words pleased her as well. "Then Viz it is," she declared with a more discernible smile. She paused a moment before winking at him playfully. "It could be my own personal name for you, something only I called you."

"You would be the only one that would," he came back, though he did look confused once more. Another pause and then, "I doubt any of the others would call me that."

"Then, _Viz,_ would you please come keep me company while I find something to eat? I have a feeling you're going to insist that I eat, and after treating you so badly, I think it would improve your impression of me if I played nice," she remarked as she wiped the remnants of tears away with the palms of her hands.

A moment of silence swirled about them and then he made eye contact once more. "You do not have to improve my impression of you… Wanda. My impression of you is substantially favorable already."

Once more, the pink rose in her cheeks, and her lips curved. She reached out as if she were going to take his hand, but pulled her hand back quickly as she nodded towards the door, "In that case, please come with me to the kitchen? I would really like you to come with me."

As they exited the room, Wanda fell a step behind Vision so she could consider him a moment without her expression alerting the synthezoid to the fact that she was thinking about him in some capacity.

_What are you doing?_ she asked herself in bewilderment. _Are you actually… flirting with an artificial man? Just half an hour ago, he was an "it." Now, he's suddenly a very kind and very sweet man who just happens to be different, like you? In his defense, for a supposedly unfeeling machine, he's more human than most people I know. Besides, I like him, talking to him, looking at him, being around him… he's actually kind of cute in a dark red skinned sort of way. The innocent and cute puppy thing he has going on just makes it harder to deny that… I don't know… that there's_ something _there. Whatever it is, it can't hurt to be nice to him._

X

**New Avengers Facility, Upstate New York — July 16, 2015**

Wanda came into the kitchen with a spring in her step that no one had seen from her since she'd been there. She was humming to herself when she looked up, and suddenly slowed her pace until she stood still. At one of the tables, Clint was seated and eating what looked like a cheeseburger as he watched the images flicker past on the TV screen on the wall. She took a second to look around the room and saw that the two of them were alone.

"I'm sorry," she apologized as she stopped moving. "I didn't realize anyone was in here. Usually, it's empty in here this time of day." The sun was bright as it poured in through the skylight panels above the room, situated in the roof many feet above them. She tucked her hair back behind an ear and turned to leave her friend to his thoughts and his movie, or whatever it was he was watching.

Clint laid his burger back on the plate and wiped his mouth as he turned to face her. He shook his head and pulled out a chair before patting the seat. "You're fine, Wanda," he said and patted the seat again. "Come on, come sit down and let's talk a minute. We haven't had a chance to catch up in the last few days."

The young woman hesitated for a moment, seemingly unsure of what she should do. Was he angry with her or something? She was closest to him out of all the Avengers, and she thought of him as an older brother figure. He was the first that had extended a hand in friendship, the one that gave her the chance to show her true character and fortitude during the Battle of Sokovia. The thought of him being angry, upset, or disappointed with her was something she was surprised to discover that would bother her more than she would have expected.

"I… I don't want to interrupt your lunch," she replied, still unsure of what the true motive behind the request was. She didn't think that he was trapping her or something else equally ludicrous, but she was still getting used to the dynamics around the compound, and between the Avengers themselves. Even in the couple of months she'd been there, she was still unsure of how she fit in, if she fit in at all.

Clint made a noise that sounded halfway between a whistle and a grunt as he waved a hand dismissively before turning the TV off and patting the seat once again. "You know better than that, kiddo," he said with a light smile. He pushed his plate back with a thumb and leaned back in the chair. "You're not interrupting anything. Come on, sit with me."

She hesitated again, but finally came to sit next to the archer at the table. Wanda crossed her arms lightly over her chest, unaware she was taking a passively defensive posture. Her eyes flitted to Clint's, then to the table and back again. The tension within her was like a living thing, coiling about her with invisible twists, squeezing her insides.

Clint shook his head and chuckled lightly for a second, watching her face. The kid acted as if she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar or something. When he figured that he'd let the uncomfortable silence grow between them enough, he took a sip of his drink and leaned back again. "You seem particularly happy today," he noted. "Finally coming out from under that cloud, huh?"

Wanda's features came into a confused scowl as she tried to decipher his meaning with the unfamiliar metaphor. "I… I don't know what you… oh. Um, yeah, I guess you could say that. I don't know… I still miss Pietro, I still grieve for and mourn him, but it seems a little easier. I feel like I can feel again, even if it's just a little," she tried to explain as she shifted nervously in her chair.

Clint watched her face, wondering just what she'd divulge if he gave her enough time. He had a pretty good idea of what was going on, but he didn't want her thinking he had some say over what she did, or whom she did it with.

"Gee, I wonder why _that_ could be," he smirked as he finished off his drink and slid the glass across the table towards the plate. Try as he might, he couldn't suppress his quiet laughter as he decided to let her squirm a little, in true big brother tradition.

Wanda reached over and shoved him by his shoulder playfully as she gave him a cold glare, complete with indignant and incredulous expression. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?" she asked with mock exasperation. "What are you saying? Are you saying I can't or shouldn't be happy? Is this the bitter sting of disapproval?" Her green eyes danced with merriment as she reciprocated the good natured ribbing.

There was a loud smack as Wanda punctuated her words with a teasing punch on Clint's shoulder. "Ow!" he yelled as he grabbed his shoulder, overacting the response to the punch as he finally burst into laughter. He reached up and squeezed her shoulder. "Well, you _have_ been spending a lot of time with Vision. It seems like you two get along pretty well. So well in fact that hardly anybody ever sees either one of you. Until I saw you just now, we were planning to file a Missing Persons report."

"You're terrible!" she giggled and wrapped her arms around her knees as she drew them to her. Her face softened into a relaxed, but cheerful expression. "You're right, I have, I guess. It's just… he's so… he makes me feel, well, happy. Viz can always make me smile, even when I don't feel like it or don't want to. He's so smart and wise, yet so innocent in so many ways. It's just… I don't know, I don't have the English words for it."

"Oh, it's _Viz_ now, huh?" he chuckled as she popped him again in the shoulder with her fist. Still rumbling the soft laugh, he reached out and wrapped an arm around her shoulders and ruffled her hair mischievously.

Wanda shook her hair free of Clint's assault and huffed, "Yes, it is. He lets me call him that. He _wants_ me to call him that." The young woman couldn't suppress the grin trying to escape for long, and then it morphed into a serious expression. "Viz is… he isn't what everyone _thinks_ he is. He's more, Clint. _Much_ more. There's a lot more to him than people care to look for. I know it sounds crazy, but he makes me feel… he makes me feel _normal_ for a change. Viz accepts me just as I am, even though I'm different. I guess maybe it's because he's different, too."

He sobered and gave her a gentle squeeze. "Look, Wanda," he began, looking over to lock eyes with her. "I'm glad you two get along. You have friends here, and we all accept you as you are. As mixed up and crazy as we are, we're your family now. I'm sorry if I haven't let you see that.

"If Vision makes you happy, like you are right now, and lets you be yourself, then I'm happy. He's a hell of a guy, and as you said, he's innocent. So, don't think for a second I don't agree with you spending time with a friend, or whatever, that makes you feel like this. It's damned nice to see you light hearted like this. You've seen enough loss, grief, and sorrow in your life, Wanda. It's high time that you got to see the other side of that coin for a while, and when you need help, you have it. That's what we're all here for, to help you stand when you can't, to help you across the bridge you can't walk alone."

"He does, yes," she said quietly after the sound of Clint's words finally faded. The Sokovian curled into his arm to give him a hug for a moment and then released him. "I know you all are, that you are especially. I'm very grateful for the family that I've been welcomed into, despite everything… all the things that I—"

"Hey, don't do that," Clint said as he immediately lifted her chin to find his eyes. "It doesn't matter who you were, what you did, what you said… none of that matters. What matters is who you are right now, what you do right now. You're a different person than the one that got into our heads and was Ultron's puppet. I'm a different person than I was when all that happened. We live our lives, always pushing forward. We don't have time to slide backwards into what's already happened."

Wanda listened to him, and nodded her head softly as she silently slipped into thought. She wasn't sure what was happening, how it was happening, or why it was happened. Whatever it was, it was happening and that's all she knew about it. It was nice to know that Clint, and probably the others, were behind her on whatever "it" might be.

Wanda's eyes fixed on his a moment, and then she kissed his cheek lightly as she stood. "Thanks, Clint. Always, for everything. I'll see you later, maybe?"

"Don't mention it, kiddo," he replied as he watched her head back towards the door. "Besides, you've been away from Vizzy's company for at least twenty minutes. We can't have that!"

Wanda grabbed a cushion from the couch just across the divider and flung it at him with a laugh, "Oh, hush you!" He caught the cushion and the laughter faded as she left the room. She wanted to be near Vision again, to talk with him, to be there for him as he had always been there for her.

X

**Saint Mary's Memorial Gardens, Upstate New York — the Present**

The cemetery was large and sprawling, with well maintained graves and headstones as far as you could see. Each was a testament to the lives of the people that the stones marked, lying in the arms of eternal slumber. Every stone was a story, each unique and poignant. Here, hundreds of people came in random patterns to pay regards to loved ones gone, to reminisce about their times together, good and bad. This was where people came to feel close to people they'd loved and lost. This was true of everyone that strode among the tombstones that dotted the area.

A puff of reddish black fog sprung from nowhere, and swirled about. From the center of the fog, Wanda stepped out to stand before a headstone that was slightly apart from the others. Behind her, the fog dissipated and vanished as if it never was. The six Infinity Stones spun slowly around her hand as she read the stone for perhaps the thousandth time.

No one else was in sight as Wanda came forward and laid her hand on the cool polished stone, letting her fingers glide along its surface as she moved. The tips of her fingers traced the engraved lettering upon the stone, gliding along the lines and curves of every letter. She paused and held her breath a moment to read the stone as she always did.

In Loving Memory of

Pietro Maximoff

Born February 16, 1993 - Died May 6, 2015

Beloved Son and Twin Brother

Hero of Sokovia

A tear escaped Wanda's eye and rolled down her cheek as she stared at the beautifully polished gray stone. Around the wording were lightning bolts wreathed in flowers and crosses to form a sort of frame. The girl knelt and lightly kissed the front of the stone then brushed her hand over it to let her fingers glide along the smooth surface.

_It is within your power now, Wanda… You have the power to bring Pietro back… You have the power to bring them all back, if you wish…_

Wanda closed her eyes and trembled in fear and exhilaration before the grave of her brother, fallen far too soon, deprived of the life he was supposed to live. So many people had their destinies cut short, thanks to the madness of Thanos, even before he found the first stone. All those lives, not just on Earth, but throughout the entire universe, ripped apart, it didn't matter if they lived or were taken out by the Snap. Half the universe was snuffed from existence, but those that weren't snuffed out also ceased to exist under the weight of their suffering and loss. They breathed, they bled, but they weren't alive, not truly.

"All those lives destroyed, living and dead alike, all the needless suffering, all because of one madman convinced he would be the universe's savior," she whispered in response. Wanda continued to stare at the headstone and run her fingers over the smooth surface. "Before the attack on New York, before the Avengers were formed… all of it was _him._ All of it was Thanos.

"They keep telling me that if I reverse what was done I'll be destroying the fabric of reality and the universe. Yet, it didn't cause the universe to implode when Thanos snapped his fingers. It didn't implode when they went back in time to retrieve earlier versions of the stones. It didn't implode when they undid the Snap to bring us back. Why do they say that I'll do this if I do what I must, yet it was perfectly acceptable when they were the ones doing it?"

Her words were tainted by exhausted bitterness, and the last of her tears for the moment fell to splatter on the headstone that marked her brother's burial location. She lifted her left hand and watched the brightly glowing and sparkling stones spin slowly around her hand like planets orbiting a star.

_Thanos believed balance meant things being equal and polar opposites… An amount of life that survives offset by the lives that were extinguished, splitting existence into two halves, non existence and living… True balance is much more delicate than that… Reality and the universe are governed by a precise balance of elements of existence as a whole… As the weather patterns that are influenced by the Atlantic Gulf Stream affects the weather around the world and follows its prescribed pattern by every component being balanced as needed against the other forces in play to maintain the cycles of life and renewal, the universe and reality function much the same way… Balance is not so simple as taking the whole and splitting it in half as diametrically opposed extremes…_

Wanda furrowed her brows and sighed softly. The stones sparkled brighter and began to slowly accelerate. "So, you're telling me that the universe and reality are out of balance, and I must correct that, so that they follow their natural course, rather than the disruptions that Thanos called?" she asked softly. The weight of the responsibility she felt that she had, and the unfathomable reserves of stamina it required to not break under the relentless force of the stones themselves fatigued her but allowed her to replenish herself in small amounts as needed. It was exhausting.

_Even the restoration of as much of reality as was possible by Dr. Banner's and Mr. Stark's snaps could not fully restore the proper shape of the universe… Thanos' direct actions and the indirect ramifications of his madness warped the shape of all that is… It exists, it continues, but it is not as it should be… These alterations, however slight they may appear, have what you refer to as a butterfly effect on the whole of the universe and existence…_

Wanda felt everything click into place at that moment. Was the voice she was hearing actually Vision, or was it the stones? Were the stones, or Vision, leading her on the true path to repairing what had been done, or were they corrupting and tempting her, causing her to slip into madness? She felt herself become as steel inside, and her convictions solidified into purity of purpose and intent.

She knew that the voice had told her that it was part of Vision, as he was part of it. Would Vision counsel her to do this, to alter reality itself in order to bring back those lost, which would ease her pain as much as it would countless trillions all over the universe? Or would he argue that tampering with the fabric of nature itself was a danger ill advised to pursue? Or would he tell her that the stones were elemental and primordial forces that prompted the birth of the universe to begin with, and that the state and health of the fabric of the universe and reality were determined by the states of the stones themselves?

The things that the voice was telling her made perfect sense. The Natural Order of Things was, in fact, what most knew as Nature itself. This was the one force that would always win, because the force of Time was part of Nature, as were the other aspects of existence. Nature had been disturbed, distorted, damaged and must be repaired fully, or it would deprecate and end in a much different manner and time than what its destiny was.

Whether it was the stones communicating with her or if it was the part of Vision that was linked to the Mind Stone didn't matter to her. What mattered was that she could _feel_ Vision. She knew his presence, she knew his mind, she knew _him._ He is what she felt and complete or incomplete, it was still Vision. She knew this in her heart and soul.

They would see, everyone would see when it was all said and done. Part of her reasoning to do this was selfish; she admitted that to herself at the beginning. Yet, it wasn't _just_ a selfish indulgence. She truly wanted to give the universe back what had been taken wrongly from them. She wanted to repair what horrors had been wrought on the universe. Wanda didn't _want_ to be known as the universe's savior, or the restorer of reality. She simply wanted things to be as they should be, for better or worse. She wanted to live in a universe she could actually _live_ in, not one where she merely existed.

The voice fell silent once more, and Wanda took another deep breath, held it for a moment and then slowly let it out. Her eyes closed and the stones whirled about her hand, light shining from them in ever increasing magnitude. She could feel the fabric of what was, she could feel the wrinkles and warps that were twisted into it. Much to her astonishment, the wrinkles and warps slowly unraveled and started to straighten to their natural shape. She couldn't see it, but she felt it vividly.

With a gasp, the young woman closed her fist slowly and the light reached an apex like a supernova, and then it faded slowly back to its normal subdued brightness. She opened her eyes to behold a swirling mass of red and black fog that seemed to take shape, and finally Pietro stepped forth from the fog with a bewildered and shocked expression. Bringing him back had been a test of what the voice told her, what she would have to do on an infinitely more massive scale in the space of a split second. This was what she considered a trial and it seemed that she was perfectly successful.

Pietro stumbled, inspecting himself for the bullet holes he remembered burning into his flesh when he had acted as a shield for Clint and the little boy. He saw none; he was perfectly intact and whole. He stared at his hands for a moment, then he looked up to see his sister, and his confusion compounded. "Wanda?" he called out hesitantly. "What… what is this?"

Wanda covered her mouth with her hand and then sprang forward in a rush. Her arms came tightly around her brother and she squeezed him as tightly as she could and trembled against him in relief. "Pietro, you're here. You're here. Thank God, Pietro, thank God."

The young man wasn't prepared for the sudden affectionate assault his twin perpetrated upon him. In his confused and obviously weakened state, he stumbled and nearly crashed to the ground under the force of the embrace. He shook his head in an attempt to clear it, and held his sister's face in his hands as he tried to make eye contact.

"Wanda, what is this? How is this possible? I was dead, I know I was dead. I remember dying. I remember taking all those bullets to save the archer and the kid he was saving. Blackness closed in, and I was gone. Now I'm here."

Wanda smiled through the nearly hysterical tears that were flooding from her eyes, and shook her head in the gentle grip of his hands. "You're alive, Pietro. _You're alive!_ I know it's confusing, I know it's crazy, and I promise I'll explain. First, just let me see you and hold you. I've missed you so badly. There's so much you've missed."

It was then that he noticed the stones whirling around her hand, suspended by what he presumed was her ability to move things using her thoughts. His gaze widened, and then narrowed. "Are those… are those what I think they are?" he asked with a tone of awe in his voice.

Wanda's eyes followed his gaze, and then met his eyes once more. Her hair whipped about her face in a sudden gust of wind and she looked like a spirit bringing its wrath to bear on its enemy to Pietro's eyes for a moment. He knew his sister would never do anything like that, but the imagery was vivid.

She glanced at them a moment and then nodded. "Yes, they're the Infinity Stones," she answered as they began to whirl a bit faster and brighter. She gave her brother another tight squeeze and it felt as if a massive weight was suddenly taken from her shoulders.

"I thought that Thanos guy was looking for them, and bringing craziness with him everywhere he went to try to find them. I thought they and even Thanos were myths, just stories. Supposedly, they have the power to make you a god. You're supposed to be able to do _anything_ you want with them."

Wanda nodded softly, and cast her gaze downward a moment. "They're how I brought you back," she said in a whisper. "They're how I'm going to fix what he did, all of it, instead of just part of it like the Avengers did."

Pietro felt his jaw slowly drop, leaving his mouth gaping open a moment before he regained enough of his senses to close it once more. "You're saying that _you_… that _you_ used the stones, that they really do what the legends all say they do? You're saying it was you that brought me back from the dead?"

His sister nodded softly again, then she finally lifted her head. Tears welled in the corners of her eyes and her lip trembled. "Yes, I brought you back. I _had_ to bring you back," she answered finally, trying to speak around the lump in her throat. It felt like Pietro wasn't just confused and amazed he was alive; it felt like he was almost angry, as if she'd done something she shouldn't have.

Pietro threw his hands into the air and turned around, gripping his head for a long moment. After a few seconds of rapid pacing and holding his head, he turned back to Wanda and said, "Do you have any idea what you've done? I don't know anything about it, but it seems to me like that's fucking with _major_ forces that aren't supposed to be fucked with. Do you have any idea what could happen for you doing something like this? I don't, but I know whatever it is would be bad, very bad."

Wanda wrapped her arms around her head, sank to the ground in a sitting position, and rocked herself back and forth. The stones remained whirling about her hand. "I'm not fucking with them, I'm _fixing_ them!" she shouted all at once. The rocking got faster and faster, and the stones grew brighter and brighter.

"Thanos got all the stones, Pietro. He got _all_ of them. He snapped his fingers, and _half_ of _all_ life in the entire universe just turned to ash, and ceased to exist. _I was one of them!_ I had to destroy the Mind Stone that Vision had in his forehead, and it blew him to pieces. Thanos turned time backwards just around Vision, back far enough that he was whole again, and then he killed him _again_ in front of me, _ripped_ the goddamned stone out of his head, and threw him away like he was insignificant _trash_ Pietro. _Like he was fucking __**trash!"**_

Pietro blinked open mouthed in shock and stared at his sister as she started pulling harshly at her hair and screamed as if her very soul were being ripped forcibly from her repeatedly. _She's gone mad! What happened to her while I was… while I was dead? She sounds like she cared for this… Vision. Wasn't that the body that Ultron intended to migrate into, and the Avengers managed to upload that computer assistant thing Stark had into it instead?_

Pietro's thoughts were abruptly interrupted as Wanda screamed a piercing, agonized wail. She slammed her fists down on the ground and the entire cemetery shook, and stones split down the middle. Statues threw themselves across the graves at each other, shattered on impact, and scattered large rough debris over the place of rest for those departed. The stones were still circling her hand, but they hadn't changed in brightness or speed. Red swirling energy wreathed Wanda's hands, and her eyes glowed a bright red. His sister's entire countenance changed, became harder, angrier and more primal.

"I heard your thoughts, Pietro," she growled as she rose to her feet and brought her gaze to bear on her brother. "Vision wasn't just 'a body' or a 'machine' or 'robot' or anything like that. He was a _man_, artificial, but a man. He was… _is_ the man I love, and he was taken from me _twice._ Do you hear me, brother? _Do you hear me?_ I will fix reality and the universe; I'll put things back as they should be, the way they were meant to be. Either you can be happy to be back and help me, or you can stay out of my way. I won't hurt you, I _couldn't_ hurt you any more than I could hurt the Avengers, my family. But I won't have you, or anyone else, standing in my way. This is what _must_ be done or the universe and reality will slowly destroy itself as its instability grows. I love you, but this is where you decide where you stand, Pietro."

Pietro couldn't believe what he was seeing and hearing. Had Wanda lost so much, so many, that it had driven her completely insane? He felt pangs of guilt that he wasn't there for her, that he wasn't there to help stabilize her, just as she'd do for him in the same sort of situation.

Not only that, she was _powerful,_ scarily so. She'd always been powerful, but this was something entirely different. The truly startling thing is that the power she was using right then, that she was unleashing on the cemetery in her pain and rage, was all her own. The stones had nothing to do with what she was doing. He'd never seen anything like this before.

"Don't you see what these damned stones are doing to you, Wanda? They're corrupting you, robbing you of your senses and mind. Think, Wanda! Listen to yourself! This isn't you, this isn't my sister. This is someone… _something_ else. Please Wanda, do away with the stones and come back. I love you too; I always have and always will. You're my sister, but… but I can't let you do whatever it is that you're going to do. You could destroy everything that there is. I want to help you, but I can't help you the way you want me to, I'm sorry."

The red light faded slowly from her eyes, and she felt the hot flood of tears that poured from them burning her flesh like lava. "I'm sorry too, Pietro. I _have_ to fix this, to make everything right. It wasn't right that you died, and everything with Ultron was just Thanos moving pieces on his board. I can't leave things as they are. I _can't._ There are uncounted trillions across the universe that died before and after Thanos killed them, and the Avengers brought us back. That wasn't supposed to be their fate. It was wrong. I can't let that stand. Please understand at least, if you're not willing to help me. Try to understand."

"I can't, Wanda."

Pietro's tone was tortured and sorrowful, wrenched to the point of tears. She nodded softly, and stepped towards him. "I know, Pietro. I understand," she said as she reached up to gently touch his face and watch his face with sad eyes. "I love you, brother."

She leaned up and kissed his cheek, and he faded from sight. Wanda stared at the place where Pietro had been standing just moments ago, and then stepped into the rising black and red fog, leaving the cemetery devastated and empty.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Avengers: Don't Get in My Way**_

**Chapter 7**

The Avengers suddenly found themselves on board the ship once more. It took a moment for them to find their bearings and the ability to actually think straight enough to try and determine their present condition.

"We're back on the ship," Bucky said, as he looked the controls and computer over with a somewhat bemused expression. "And we're headed for Earth really, really fast, if I understand these readings."

The confusion everyone was feeling slowly dissipated as they took stock of their situation. Rhodey found his way over to the controls as well, and frowned as he looked at the readings as well. Finally, he nodded and said, "Bucky's right, we're on a heading straight back to Earth, and we're moving _fast._ At least five times this ship's top speed."

"The ship _should_ be flying apart moving this far above its top speed, but yet we seem to be flying smoothly and normally," Bruce commented as he glanced out the window. Stars were passing by as streaks of light that faded and brightened with different colors. "Whatever Wanda did, she's making sure we're safe."

Sam looked around the cabin for a moment, and then frowned. Something was missing. "Hey, where's Carol?" he asked. "She was the first to disappear, but she's not here. For that matter, where's Clint? Wanda couldn't have…" He trailed off as he looked at everyone in turn, observing the expressions on their faces. He was trying to determine what they thought was the more likely answer.

"Oh, she _could_ have," muttered Hank as he found a place to sit down. He shot a glare over at Dr. Strange, where the cloak was finally releasing him. He didn't say anything, but from the look he obviously had a very strong opinion. "She _could_ have done anything she damned well pleased. Whether she _did_ or not, we don't know, yet."

Everyone started as Clint suddenly appeared in from nowhere. The expression on his face was as startled and confused as any of the others. "Well, that's a ride that you should definitely read the warning sign on," he quipped as he finally settled down enough to speak. "They might want to jack up the height requirement to ride it. That was intense."

Everyone breathed easier when it was obvious that he was all right, just as they all were. Thor, who had been silent thus far, pushed off from the console he was leaning against and hefted Stormbreaker thoughtfully.

"Welcome back, Barton," the Asgardian said quietly as he surveyed his companions in the cabin of the ship. "We still have the mystery of what happened to Carol. She's not among us; she's not alongside us in space, so she must be somewhere."

Rhodey snorted and crossed his arms. He regarded everyone intently before speaking, "Thor, you know as well as I do that she could have, hell she _most likely_ blinked Carol out of existence. She was the only one that was causing a significant threat to her at the time she started zapping us all. She didn't look like she was going to bake us a batch of cookies. She looked _pissed_ to me. With that much power in the hands of somebody that unstable, I wouldn't put anything past her as far as possibilities."

Bucky leaned against a support strut with his arms crossed. Thus far, he'd been mostly listening to what all was being said, remaining characteristically quiet. At that point, however, he decided to break his silence, stating, "I'd be pissed too if I was jumped by a half dozen or more people that were supposed to be my friends and family. If she was going to do what you're suggesting, she'd have done it to all of us.

"Last I checked we're all standing here, alive and breathing. She didn't _have_ to keep us alive if she was as whacked out as you keep saying she is. But she _chose_ to. That doesn't seem like some crazy chick with a murderous agenda to me."

Rhodey immediately spoke up at that. He was convinced that Wanda was a major threat, and he was determined to make sure everyone saw that. Surely they must see the facts that were before their very eyes.

"Yeah, she left us alive, _this_ time," Rhodey said with more than a little gravity. "What's to say she'll feel so generous the next time we go at her? Can you really trust her to do that? Are you willing to lay your life, and everyone else's life, on the line for the possibility she may just trying to follow some crazy idea that she can fix things? You can't afford to be that naïve, Bucky."

Pietro suddenly popped into existence in the midst of all the arguing heroes with an expression of complete bewilderment. Somehow he'd heard the words even before he'd appeared aboard the ship. _It must be Wanda's doing, so I'd know what's going on. At least I won't be completely lost._

"Kid?" asked Clint with incredulity. Of all the things he figured could happen, this was the last thing that he would have expected. He'd watched Pietro die, die saving _him_ and a Sokovian boy from gunfire eight years ago. It couldn't be… or could it?

"Yeah, it's me, Old Man," Pietro said with a grin, as well as an expression that was losing its total befuddlement. "I bet you didn't see that one coming. I know I sure as hell didn't."

Clint stared at the young Sokovian man for several seconds, and suddenly drew him into a brief manly hug. "I sure as hell didn't. I'd ask how in hell this happened, but I think it's kind of obvious. Wanda brought you back, didn't she?" he asked as he continued to try to convince his eyes that he wasn't seeing things.

Pietro blinked in surprise when Clint embraced him and he stood in shock for a couple of seconds before he returned the embrace. "Yeah, she did," he answered as his eyes betrayed his unsettled disposition for that moment. "She's got the stones. She's got _all_ of the stones and she's planning on 'putting the universe back in order.'"

He paused for a moment as he studied Clint's face. The emotion in his face seemed genuine. That was weird enough in and of itself. Finally, he gave a lopsided grin once more and tilted his head. "I thought you hated me," he said. "Why the sudden happiness to see me? Did she bring me back to the right universe?"

"Yeah, we know," said Dr. Strange as he unfurled the Cloak of Levitation once more and returned it to its proper place on his shoulders. "What she's planning is extremely dangerous and catastrophic. The destruction of anything and everything there is in all the universe and reality dangerous and catastrophic. She's playing with forces she can't begin to understand, and hasn't even the slightest inkling of just how dangerous what she's doing is."

Pietro looked over at the unfamiliar man, and gave him a slow look up and down. He didn't know the man, and he surely didn't know how to take him, dressed as he was. His clothes looked like a cross between a monk's robes, a stage magician's clothes, and Dracula, if his cloak was black. "Who the fuck are you, and what makes you think my sister doesn't understand things?" he asked. The tone of his voice indicated anger was rising in him towards the man who was a stranger to him.

Clint slapped the young man affectionately on the shoulder and glared over at Strange. "Yeah, I _do_ hate you, Quick Feet. I hate you enough to name my youngest after you," he said as his eyes narrowed at Strange as Pietro's were. "I never got to thank you for what you did in Sokovia, so… thanks."

"I'm almost sorry to interrupt such a touching and sentimental moment, but I figured I'd let you know I'm right here, on Earth, and doing fine," a voice said over the communications panel. A screen above it flickered to life, and the face of Carol Danvers appeared on it. It was hard to determine where she was since so much of the background was obscured by her head, but it was indeed the Kree hybrid warrior. "Thanks for asking."

"You named your kid after me?" asked Pietro with an unbelieving expression as the communications screen came to life. He couldn't believe the older man would do such a thing. In Sokovia, they'd had a somewhat playful rivalry with each other, but he thought that the man truly wasn't fond of him at all. Maybe his bonding as a friend with Wanda had influenced his opinions?

Their conversations fell silent as Bruce turned towards the screen. "Carol!" he exclaimed as he settled into the ill fitting chair. "We weren't sure what happened to you. We were hoping you were okay, but we had no way of knowing. Where are you?" He was trying to study the background behind her but wasn't having much luck.

Carol stared at his image on her screen for a moment, and then laughed. She turned and let more of the scenery be visible. The sky was a bright blue with only a few tiny white wisps of clouds, and there was bright white sand over the land. In the distance, Bruce could see literal throngs of people enjoying the sun and fun.

"I'm on the beach in Maui, of all places," Carol said as she brought the focus back to her face once more. "If I was going to be blinked across a dozen light years to a remote spot, at least it's a nice one. She's got good taste. Maui's one of the best beaches in the country. If I'd known, I would have packed a swimsuit. I'm kind of overdressed, you know?"

Stephen Strange pointed at the screen and his face hardened in righteous purpose. "Miss Danvers is safe… for the moment. Miss Maximoff was feeling generous. She could just as easily have transported Miss Danvers to a very deadly, very inhospitable location, such as the heart of the sun, or in the core of Pluto, or somewhere even worse."

After a moment, he continued, "Miss Danvers' powers are considerable, and if Miss Maximoff had been so inclined, she could easily have placed her somewhere that her powers are inconsequential, or could have removed those powers completely. I know the truth hurts and is hard to swallow, but you have to start thinking with your minds. Wanda Maximoff is an enormous threat whose mood is infinitely capricious at this time. She could respond in any way to anything we say or do at any given time. We could all be destroyed if she has such a whim, or she could destroy numbers hitherto never imagined if the mood happened to strike her. The sad truth of the fact is that she can't be trusted."

Clint growled, but before he could say anything, Pietro moved across the cabin and right in front of Strange in the blink of an eye. He wore an angry expression, and had his finger right in Strange's face.

"I don't know who the fuck you are and I don't care," he said in a low tone. "But since I don't know you, _I_ don't trust _you,_ and if you tell me that my sister can't be trusted again, and keep talking about her as if she were the enemy, I'll break every bone in your body before you can even realize that I just told you that I'd do it."

Strange blinked several times, obviously not expecting something like that. Around him, everyone seemed to be preparing themselves to speak at once. It would be a huge discordant argument if they allowed their feelings to get the better of them. The young man's finger in his face did get to him, however.

Strange coldly stared at Pietro a moment, and then in a quiet but menacing tone said, "Boy, move your finger right now. I don't care who you are, no one talks to the Sorcerer Supreme in such a way. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into."

"Sure I do," Pietro came back in an equally quiet and cold voice. "I'm getting hip deep in kicking your ass is what I'm getting myself into. That whole 'no idea what you're getting into' shit goes both ways. As for me moving my finger… make me."

The others had been having quiet conversations among themselves all that time, until the confrontation between Strange and Pietro started. Then everyone fell silent and watched the pair.

Bucky stepped over towards them, and looked at them intently, Strange in particular. Finally, he looked around at everyone else. "'She can't be trusted,' you say," he said with a half smile on his face.

"You know, it wasn't very long ago that most of you didn't trust me. I can't say I blame you. A brainwashed, programmed Russian version of a super soldier trained in covert ops and assassinations, among other things, wouldn't be my first choice for the Most Trustworthy Award, either."

Bucky glanced over at Sam and continued, "Some of you distrusted me more than others. Some of you a _lot_ more than others. But here we stand, together, united. A team working together on the same side, watching each other's backs. You learned to trust me, despite my past, despite what I'd been programmed to do.

"Wanda earned your trust and has kept it. You all were willing to stand by her through hell itself. Steve trusted her, and I trust Steve. So, I trust Wanda. I don't have to understand what she thinks she's doing to understand her. Whatever she's doing, no matter how far off the rails she might go, she's still Wanda. Obviously, she thinks she's doing the right thing, something no one else seems to be able to do. Whatever else she may have rolling around in her mind, she wants to make things better and put things right. It doesn't matter if it's the 'right' or 'wrong' way to do it. She deserves for you to give her the benefit of the doubt, to lean on that trust you've always had for her."

Silence reigned in the cabin of the ship for a long moment before Carol broke the silence from the screen. "Bucky's right, guys," she let out slowly. "I don't know her very well compared to the rest of you, but I do know what sort of person she is. I fought side by side with her against Thanos. She gave everything, and then gave even more, to take the fucker down. She had my back, she was on my side. I trusted her then. Because of all that, I trust her now.

"It's true, she could have killed me, or she could have sent me to some really bad places, especially after I tried to take her down. Instead, she sent me to Maui. As angry as she was, you'd expect her to lash out and start killing people. She didn't."

More silence filled the room with a tangible pressure. Those that were convinced that Wanda was a threat to be taken down found themselves temporarily without a voice to further argue their position.

Finally the silence was broken. Thor hefted Stormbreaker over his shoulder and swept his gaze over them, "Carol's right. Wanda is a friend. She's family. She could have killed all of us. If we have to stop her, fine. We stop her. But we stop her peacefully; we treat her as the family she is. She's filled with enormous grief. Everyone's grief is different. This is hers. We can't condemn her for her grief."

X

Morgan Stark sat at the little table in front of the tent her father had put up for her, playing with her toys. The day was quiet, especially around the secluded cabin where she and her mother now lived. The wind rustled by softly now and then as Morgan's imagination took her to a fantasy land where her father was still alive, and they were doing something fun together.

Inside, her mother was making lunch and keeping an eye on her through the window in the kitchen. Morgan knew her mother was very sad, and her Uncle Happy had said it was because she missed Morgan's daddy so much. Morgan thought that made sense. She missed her daddy too, and all the things they did together. Everything was okay when her father was around, and he made both her and her mother laugh so much.

Her dad had left a message for them, and she would sneak downstairs at night, and watch her mother watching the message repeatedly. The image of her father was exactly as she remembered him. Her mother always cried when she'd watch the message, and it made Morgan sad too, not just because she missed her dad, but also because it made her mother so sad to watch it. She knew that her dad wasn't coming back, and that hurt her mother terribly, and that made Morgan sad.

Morgan had just poured a cup of imaginary tea when she heard leaves rustle and the snap of a twig behind her. She turned to look over her shoulder, and she was surprised to see the woman from her father's funeral with the pretty hair walking towards her. Around her left hand, multicolored jewels floated a couple of inches from her skin, and they shone with a distinct light. She wore a red leather jacket, and dark pants. This was very different from the pretty black dress she had worn the last time Morgan saw her.

"Hello, Morgan," Wanda said with a soft smile as she came closer to the little girl. She knelt down to be at her level and tilted her head. "Do you remember me? I'm a friend of your mommy and daddy's. I'm Wanda. I was here for your daddy's… funeral."

She hated bringing up such a terrible memory for the little girl, but how else could she describe it? The girl looked at her with such intensity that she could almost feel the wheels turning inside the little girl's head. Her eyes were bright and alert, and she could see so much of both Tony and Pepper in her right then.

The little girl smiled and answered, "Yes, I remember you. Your hair is still so pretty. You were really nice. Why are you here?" Despite her abrupt greeting and question, Wanda smiled fondly. It was simply an innocent question, asked by a five year old innocent little girl. Young children had no filters, and in true Tony Stark fashion, his daughter didn't, just as her father didn't.

The corners of Wanda's lips turned upwards a little and she nodded towards the chair on the other side of the table. "May I?" she asked as she took stock of Morgan. She was trying to see what the girl's general mood was, and if it was prudent to talk about some of the things she wanted to talk to both her and Pepper about.

Morgan's face lit up in a magical kind of light and she nodded very formally and waved to it. "Yes, of course. Please," she replied as she set an extra tea set down in front of the Sokovian. Next to Wanda were a teddy bear and a stuffed Tyrannosaurus Rex. On the other side were a stuffed monkey and elephant.

Wanda sat and curled her legs up as much as she could. "Thank you," she said to the young girl with another soft smile. Her expression grew soft, yet serious. "I wanted to say I'm sorry for leaving so suddenly during the… that day." Wanda brushed a hand nervously back through her hair. She wasn't sure what the girl's reactions would be.

Instead of sitting down, Morgan came around the table and wrapped her arms around Wanda in a tight hug. When she finally let go of the stunned young woman, Morgan smiled and said, "Its okay. You were really sad. Sometimes when you're sad, you don't want to be around anybody. I was sad too. I understand."

Wanda wasn't expecting that. She found herself squeezing the little girl warmly and tears welled up in her eyes when she forgave her. "I was, yes. I still am, Morgan. We lost so many people; I lost people I love, too. I was sad to lose your dad," she said in almost a whisper. Her eyes shimmered as she tried to keep her cool.

Morgan laid her hand gently on Wanda's shoulder. It was easy, considering that Wanda was practically sitting on the ground since the tea table chair was so low to the ground. "Daddy didn't want us to be sad. He said he was helping to make sure we were all safe, all of us. But I was sad anyway. I miss my daddy," she said with a soft voice and serious gravity in her tone.

"Morgan, honey?" called out a voice from around the bushes alongside the walkway.

Morgan perked up and called back, "At the tent, Mommy. Wanda came to see us. Can Wanda stay for lunch with us?" She gave Wanda a pathetically pleading look, and even though it was a joke, the little girl was too cute for words.

Pepper came around the curve and smiled gently when she saw Wanda. Once she was able to regain her feet from the extremely small chair, Pepper hugged her, and glanced between her daughter and their guest. "Of course she can, if she wants," answered Pepper. She turned towards Wanda and asked, "Would you like to stay for lunch? What brings you all the way out here?"

Wanda returned the embrace, and nodded with a faint smile. "Of course, if that's okay? I actually came to speak with you about something. Something serious that I'm hoping will make things better for everyone," she told Pepper with a serious expression. She was hoping that Pepper would see what she was trying to do and that she would be on her side, rather than think she was losing her mind. She was hoping Pepper could reassure her that she wasn't losing her mind.

Pepper fell silent and it was then that the sparkling jewels swirling around Wanda's hand caught her attention. She couldn't understand how she hadn't noticed them instantly upon seeing the young woman. Maybe it was because she was happy to see Wanda because seeing any of their friends was a relief or therapy for Pepper?

Hesitantly, she pointed towards the stones and met Wanda's eyes with her own. "Wanda, are those… are those what I think they are?" she asked. A cold chill of apprehension raced down her spine and it was getting hard to breathe. Those things had killed Tony, they had practically ripped him apart right in front of her. She had never wanted to see them again.

Wanda's eyes traveled down to the stones and back to Pepper. She nodded softly as their eyes locked once more. Her voice was soft and quiet. "Yes. That's what I wanted to talk to you about, Pepper. I think I can fix things, that I can put things back the way they're supposed to be. I want things to be the way they should be, I want people to live that shouldn't have died, I want you and Morgan to be happy again," she finally said.

_She is afraid, yet she is also intrigued. It seems as if the hope that you can, indeed, do as she hopes will be stronger than the fear she may experience. You can put things right once more, Wanda. You must. You must, not only for your sake and for the sake of countless trillions of trillions of people, but also for Pepper and Morgan…_

Wanda heard the voice that sounded so very much like her Vision once more in her mind and she simply nodded, hoping the disembodied presence would understand her. She hoped very much that Pepper would see the importance and necessity of what she was trying to accomplish instead of fearing her as most of the others did.

Pepper's brows furrowed and she turned to Morgan. "Sweetheart, go wash up and then I'll give you your lunch. Why don't you eat while watching your cartoons? Wanda and I need to talk, and we don't want to bore you," she said softly as she knelt down to give Morgan's shoulder a squeeze.

The little girl agreed and ran into the house, exclaiming her excitement and turning the TV to the Cartoon Network, she got herself settled. Usually she ate lunch with her mother, and they would watch cartoons together, but today they had a guest, so she would stay quiet so they wouldn't be disturbed, and her mom would watch cartoons with her later.

Pepper invited Wanda into the house, and she made Morgan's plate as Wanda started from the beginning. Once Pepper had given Morgan her plate, the conversation started getting serious. She listened as Wanda told her what had happened in detail, when it had started, what she had done, all of it. Every detail that Wanda could remember, she told Pepper. She related everything from the first stirrings of feeling something tugging at her to feeling the stones, to reforming them, the fight with the Avengers, and even her resurrection of Pietro.

Pepper gasped as she told her about these things, but the part about Pietro caught her attention the most. She stared, open mouthed, across the table at her guest for a long moment. She was unable to speak, or even move, for several moments. During that time, Wanda simply watched her face and eyes, wondering what she would say. She was scared of what Pepper might say, what she would probably say given how most of the others had acted.

When she could finally speak again, she cleared her throat and leaned across the table. Her face was a mask of shock and almost desperation. "Let me get this straight. You went to Pietro's grave and… and you just did whatever it is that you do to use the stones, and you brought him back. Brought him back from the dead? And he's himself and not some weird soulless zombie or something? It's _really_ Pietro?" she asked in a hushed voice. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

Wanda nodded softly. There was still fear of persecution in her eyes, but she answered the question all the same, "Yes, that's right. I brought him back to life. I don't really know how or how I knew I could, but I did, and yes it's really Pietro. He's exactly the way he's supposed to be, no zombie stuff, no evil reflection, none of that stuff. From his perspective, he's only been gone a short time. He remembers everything… and he is afraid of what I want to do. He thinks I'm messing with forces that shouldn't be messed with. What do _you_ think, Pepper? Would you risk tweaking forces to put things back the way they're _supposed_ to be, the way they would have been if Thanos hadn't carried out his mad scheme?"

Pepper leaned back, still reeling from everything she'd just been told. It couldn't be true; it was too good to be true. But it had to be true, didn't it? Thanos did incredible and terrible things with the stones. Tony and the others had _traveled back in time_ and brought back versions of the stones from the past. That was supposed to be impossible, and if anything was messing with the fabric of the universe, that had to be something near the top of the list, didn't it?

She looked into Wanda's eyes from across the table. She saw the same person that she'd known and had talked to all those times. She wasn't crazy, or at least didn't seem to be. She was in pain, and she was scared. Everyone had lost so much, lost so much that they should never have lost to begin with. If it could be fixed, shouldn't it be fixed? If you didn't, reality was cracked in some way, wasn't it?

Finally, she swallowed slowly and then found Wanda's eyes again. Her hand reached across the table to rest lightly on top of Wanda's as she replied, "Wanda… that's a lot to take in. It's… well, honestly it sounds insane. But I can see in your eyes that it's not insane. Thanos basically took a jackhammer to reality and the way things are supposed to be. Things are better now, but they're not right. If I had the chance to fix it, if I had the chance to bring those back that shouldn't be gone… you're damned right I'd put things back the way they're supposed to be. I don't understand a lot of this stuff, but for the past five years, despite all the happiness we've had and all the bad stuff and tragedy, it didn't feel _right._ This is why. It needs to be fixed. A bubble gum and bailing wire solution just doesn't cut it."

Wanda remained silent, though she did nod softly. Her brows knit together a moment as she thought. Pepper was well known for being level headed and if anyone could keep Tony Stark even, then they were probably the most reasonable person on the planet.

_Pepper is realistic and pragmatic, Wanda. She understands what must be done, and why, even if she is not aware of that knowledge within herself. If you were seeking confirmation from an outside source that your intentions were the correct ones, it would appear you have received that confirmation. The beginning of your journey is here. Soon, we will be reunited. Soon you will be with me, and I with you…_

Resisting the urge to answer the voice in her mind, she looked up at Pepper and gave her hand a squeeze. It was as if everything was rushing over her like a tidal wave, and she had to find a way to swim through it and reach the shore. "I… I want to… would you want me to bring Tony back?" she asked after a couple of false starts. Her mouth was dry and it felt like she was rubbing two pieces of sandpaper together when she'd speak. "He shouldn't have died… he shouldn't have _had_ to die, not like that, not at that time. It's only because of Thanos that he found himself on that path. If Thanos had not done what he did, all of this would be right, both the good and the bad."

Tears spilled from Pepper's now bloodshot eyes as she covered her mouth. After a few seconds, she nodded rapidly, trying to push down all the pain and sadness. Her entire being shook and she glanced towards the doorway where Morgan was cheerfully watching cartoons in the next room. She thought of what having Tony back would mean to Morgan, what it would mean to Tony, and what it would mean to her. In a choked harsh whisper, she croaked out, "Yes."

Wanda nodded silently, and glanced out towards the place where Tony was buried close to the house. She gave Pepper's hand a squeeze and then started weaving her hands in intricate patterns. The stones revolving around her hand glowed brighter and brighter, and a kaleidoscope of light flickered around the room. There was a rush of air as if it were being sucked into something, and there was a light, followed by a reddish fog.

The fog billowed and shimmered and seconds later, a human form stumbled out of the fog and the fog dissipated as quickly as it came. Tony Stark caught himself and broke his fall by grabbing a kitchen chair. His eyes wildly looked around with rapid glances until his eyes came to rest on Pepper.

"Pepper? Is that… am I really here? Or is this some cosmic existential joke?" he asked. His body still shook somewhat, but he was getting more steady as he acclimated to being upright once more. He ran his hand back through his thick hair and steadied himself.

Seconds after he found himself in the kitchen, Pepper jumped up from her seat and nearly tackled him in a tight hug. Her lips peppered wet salty kisses flavored with tears all over his face and mouth. "Tony! It's real, it's true… you're really here," she whispered emphatically. She couldn't believe her eyes, but there he was, in the flesh. He was solid and real, and getting his bearings a little more every second.

"Yeah, Pepper, I'm here. I'm here with you. I don't know _how_ but at the moment, I really don't give a shit. All I care about is that I'm here with you and Morgan," he said as his arms returned her embrace, squeezing her nearly as tight as she squeezed him.

"You can't say that," said a voice from the doorway. "That word belongs to Mommy. She made it up. Are you a ghost, Daddy?" Morgan stood there, staring at her father, with a teddy bear hanging from her hand.

With a wink at Pepper, Tony released her and turned towards Morgan. "You're right, that is Mommy's word. I'll have to pay her royalties on it. I'll cut her a check. Do you think a couple of thousand will be enough to cover it?" he asked his daughter deadpan as she stood there still with a huge grin on her face. "Oh, wait, I'm dead. That means Mommy's already got all my money. I'm paid up for awhile, don't you think?"

He just looked at her for a moment, unable to believe that he was here, that he was alive and seeing those he loved most in all the world again. He felt perfectly healthy. There were no signs of the horrendous injuries he'd gotten fighting Thanos.

Finally, he opened his arms and waved Morgan to him with a jerk of his head. "Yeah, sure, I'm a ghost. Do I look more like Casper or Beetlejuice? What do you think? Come here and find out, small fry," he joked with his daughter as she came running to him once he knelt down to her height. He spun her around a couple of times, which elicited a loud giggle from her as her arms went around his neck even tighter.

"I just can't believe it," whispered Pepper to Wanda as they stood watching Tony with Morgan. "He's really here. He's alive. You brought him back to us, Wanda. Thank you. Thank you so much." Impulsively, she grabbed the younger woman in a tight hug and squeezed her for long moments.

Wanda hugged back, and whispered in return, "Of course, Pepper. We have had so many losses. It's time to get some of those back, and put things back to the way they're supposed to be. This is one of the first steps to doing that." She then moved a couple of steps out of the way, and silently watched the reunited family with a soft smile of satisfaction on her lips.

After over an hour, Tony seemed to recognize that Wanda was actually present. Pepper had been trying to explain everything to him, but there was only so much that she knew to tell him.

Finally, he whispered to Pepper that he needed to talk to Wanda, and then he lifted Morgan again into his arms. "Remember when you told me that you loved me three thousand, Morgan? Well, I found out today that I love you an insane amount."

"How much, Daddy?"

He paused a moment and slowly smiled. "I love you… wow, I can't believe I'm saying this, this is an _insane_ number. I don't know if you can take it. Do you think you can take it? Are you strong enough? I don't know, I don't know if you can take it all at once. It's a lot you know? I mean a _lot._ Maybe you can make a couple of trips to get it all?"

Morgan giggled and bumped her forehead against her father's and looked him eye to eye. "I can take it," she said ever so seriously. "I can take it all. So just tell me already!" Morgan was happier than Pepper had seen her since before Tony left to deal with the Thanos situation.

Tony paused dramatically, and winked at Pepper and Wanda. "Well, Morgan, Daddy loves you… oh, man, this is so much, I don't know. I just can't stand the thought of you getting crushed under it all." He laughed when she swatted his shoulder and gave him the stern little scowl she got sometimes. "I love you _ten thousand,_ sweetheart. I love you so much." He kissed her cheek and set her back down on the floor.

Morgan screeched happily and grabbed Pepper's hand and her mother led her back into the next room so that Tony and Wanda could talk. She looked back at her newly returned husband and smiled again, unable to believe the miracle she'd witnessed that day.

When he was sure that Pepper and Morgan were out of immediate earshot, he leaned back against the counter and nodded towards the Infinity Stones whirling about Wanda's hand. "Great taste in jewelry. Flashy. It really brings out your eyes," he said as he regarded her carefully. He seemed to be almost studying her.

When Wanda didn't say anything, Tony continued, "Okay, so what's the game plan? What's your idea of what exactly you're going to do with those glitter rocks there? I've already died fighting somebody using those things. I don't think I'll have to fight you, I mean you brought me back. Why stack the odds against yourself, right? You're a friend, so what's your play, what's on your mind, what have you got up your sleeve? Spell it out for me, Wanda."

Wanda shook her head with a faint smile. Being dead hadn't diminished Tony's personality in the slightest, though there was a slightly more haunted look in his eyes. That was probably from the knowledge that he had died. Wanda was glad to see that he was the same man that she remembered.

"I felt the stones' energy calling to me across the universe. I felt that energy move and obey my wishes. Wong says that the stones all control an essential aspect of the universe, therefore they _can't_ be destroyed permanently. They will always reform somewhere in the universe," she explained with a sigh. Her eyes kept roaming over his face.

"If they didn't reform, the universe and all of reality would fold in on itself because those aspects would no longer be maintaining those forces. I plan on putting things right, Tony. I plan on putting _everything_ right again, the way it was supposed to be before Thanos wreaked his havoc on the universe.

"I plan on restoring everything and everyone but Thanos and his minions. I'm leaving them in the oblivion that he consigned me and countless others to. And don't worry. Your marriage, Morgan, all of that will be staying the same as well. Once I've done everything I can with all of the stones, I'm returning the Soul Stone to Vormir and bringing Nat back, I'm returning the Mind Stone to Vision and bringing him back and then… then I'm scattering the stones to the far flung corners of the universe. I'm sending them all to places where even I won't know where they are, and they won't and can't be found ever, if we're fortunate. Everything will be right once more."

She watched his face, trying to gauge his thoughts and reactions. Thus far, she was having little luck. At the same time, he was studying her, staring at her with such intensity, it felt like he was dissecting her. The only thing she could think of was that he must be weighing her story, deciding whether he could believe and trust her, and what he would do as a result of his decision.

"Clint said that Nat had to sacrifice herself and give her soul in exchange for the Soul Stone. A soul for a soul. It doesn't sound like this red guy is exactly the type to take merchandise back, exchange it, or give refunds. So, how are you going to get him to swap with you?" he finally asked. His gaze was still intensely on her.

She thought a moment, took a breath, and then answered, "I'm going back in time and exchanging it at the moment Nat sacrificed herself. It would be as if the stone was never taken. Then, because Thanos would never have come seeking the stone, the Gamora of this time period's soul would never have been given in exchange for it, and she would be alive as well."

Tony stared at her a few more moments. Wanda could only imagine he was considering her planned actions, and she anxiously waited to see what he would say. She hoped he would be on her side, that he would see the truth in what she said. The seconds ticked by as if each was an eternity unto itself.

Suddenly, Tony took a hold on her arm in a light grip and led her into another room. In the center, near the staircase was a large platform that somewhat resembled a billiards table. He moved closer to it, and flipped over several cabinets, revealing sophisticated computer equipment.

"Friday, pull up the reality model from when we were planning the time heist, and track every known change in the flow of reality from the moment Thanos committed his first act with an Infinity Stone. Lay them out in diagram form with annotations and equations, and correlate them against each other, and the present state of the flow of reality."

"Boss?" asked the computer in a decidedly confused tone. "Welcome back, Boss. Calculating the requested affected nodes and extrapolating data as requested."

"Good to be back, Friday. When you get it calculated, superimpose it over an inverse Mobius strip, and apply the Sharapov Dimensional Interaction Curve to it as well in a transverse position."

The requested images materialized over the platform as Wanda shook her head in confusion at Tony. "'Time heist?'" she asked with a bewildered tone.

"Long story," Tony replied with a noticeable sigh. "In a ten billion to one chance, Lang actually pulled off a successful theory. He proposed it; I did the math and figured it out."

"Of course you did," she replied with a small but definite smile. "You _are_ Tony Stark, after all. Tell me, please… am I crazy, or is what I'm proposing possible? And do you believe me?"

Tony looked over at her as the model continued to render. After several intent moments of observation, he let out a breath. "Where the Infinity Stones are involved, _nothing_ is impossible. _Everything and anything_ is possible. So yeah, this is possible. We just need to figure out what _exactly_ needs to be put back on the right current so when you do your thing, you know what needs to be specifically be put back on track. So yes, I believe you, Wanda. Anything's got to be better than the shit box Thanos left us in, right? Everybody comes back. Nobody's left behind."

He studied her another moment and then suddenly drew her up into a tight hug and he clapped her back lightly. "Thank you, Wanda," he said quietly. "Thank you for everything. Now, go make whatever arrangements you need to make, or whatever it is you're going to do, and I'll work with Friday on getting this down to a science. I'll let you know when the model is done and the simulation says we're green to go. You can do this. You know that, right? I know you can. So, let's get out there and do it, let's kick it in the ass and get it going again."

Wanda nodded as she broke their embrace, and watched him for a second, and then once more, she stepped into the reddish fog, and was gone. Seconds after she was gone, the fog disappeared.

Tony thoughtfully chewed the inside of his jaw for a moment, and then moved to a side console. "Friday, can you call up the… what do we call the damned thing, anyway? The space ship that I almost died in. Call that, priority one, will you?"

Silently, Friday complied, and after a second, Bruce's face appeared on the screen. Tony's face was blank for a moment, and then like flipping a switch, he grinned like a fool and made a "ta da" pose.

"_Tony?!"_ yelled Bruce as the image came over the screen. The big man's green features were confused, happy, shocked, amazed, curious, and more. It was obvious that he was blindsided by what he was seeing. "How the hell did this happen? It's really you, right? You're not some holographic prank are you?"

"No, no prank. No joke, no funny, no jest, no ribbing, just little old me," Tony replied as he took a seat in front of the screen. "It's a long and really confusing story, so for the sake of not causing brain cells to explode, I'm going to give you the bathroom wall version. Wanda used the Infinity Stones and brought me back. I'm back. Yeah, I know, it sounds crazy and it can sure look like the girl's flipped her wig, but she's got the Stones. Anything is possible with their power. Even something like this."

"Yeah, we've already had a run in with her. Tony, she's losing it. She thinks Vision is talking to her, and she's got this grand plan to 'fix' everything. We're talking about an infinite universal scale. She brought her brother back too, and she sent Carol to Maui during the… I wouldn't even call it a fight. It was more like watching a bunch of kids trying to learn to walk and falling on their faces."

"Maybe she _is_ talking to Vision. The Mind Stone was part of him, so obviously they'd have to be linked in some way, right? Maui, huh? Well, there are worse places she could have sent her. She could have dropped her in New Jersey. Did she get a tan?

"Anyway, Bruce… listen to me. It's not as crazy as it sounds. She can do it. Not just because she's got the stones, but also because she's got the will. I've got Friday building a model and running sims right this second for the Snap 3.0 patch. I'm running the math."

Bruce scratched his head, but he didn't look completely convinced. He heaved a sigh and wiped his obviously bleary eyes. "Look, Tony, I want her to be right as badly as you do, or anyone else. I do. I just don't know if she's in her right mind right now. She seems like she's losing her grip. I love Wanda, you know I do, but she's not thinking straight right now. It's bad enough that we've got a decisive split in our opinions here. And neither side is really happy with the other over their opinion."

Tony nodded and scratched his chin, deep in thought for a moment. "Tell you what," he said finally. "I don't know where she's going, but she doesn't seem like she's making any huge effort to cover her tracks. Intercept her. _Don't_ engage her or make any sort of move that can be perceived as threatening. Watch her, talk to her, play checkers with her, I don't care, just ease your mind and be ready if you have to be. While you're doing that, I'll finish this up and get it to her.

"If she's right, she can fix everything, Bruce. _Everything._ Including getting Nat back. If she's wrong… we can figure that out then. I don't believe she'd hurt us, and I don't want to take the infinitesimal chance we've got of hurting her at this moment."

Bruce sighed and then nodded. "Okay, we'll play it your way, Tony. I just hope to God you're right, and this isn't going to be a cluster fuck."

X

Reddish fog rose at the edge of the protective shield over the nation of Wakanda, and from it Wanda stepped out, followed by the body of Vision. She had stopped to retrieve his body from the compound, and she brought it with her to the kingdom that T'Challa ruled. The stones whirled slowly around her hand, and glowed a little brighter than usual.

The guards seemed surprised, and somewhat on edge, until one of them recognized her. He had called for Okoye, the general of the Dora Milaje. A skimmer approached and stopped before Wanda and the floating body of Vision. The bald dark skinned woman gave Wanda a respectful nod. "Welcome back to Wakanda. King T'Challa is not presently here. It's unknown precisely when he will return. Is there something we may assist you with?"

Wanda cast her gaze around her at the well armed Wakandans, and then back to Okoye. She could see that Okoye's eyes were focused on the whirling stones about her hand. The stones had caused Wakanda much trouble, and it wasn't surprising that the general was cautious about admitting someone wielding them.

"Hello, General," she responded respectfully. She shook her head as she spoke, "Thank you, but I'm not here to speak with King T'Challa. I was hoping that Princess Shuri would talk to me. I have something very important to ask her."

Okoye's eyes moved from the Sokovian to the floating and damaged body of Vision, positioned just behind and to Wanda's right side. She recognized the synthezoid from their stand against Thanos' Black Order several years before. "If you will give me a moment?" she finally asked as she brought up her wrist, adorned by technologically sophisticated large beads.

"Of course," nodded Wanda as she tried to calm her breathing. She could have simply stepped into the palace, but that would have startled them, and they would have mistaken her for a threat. That's not something she wanted. She liked the Wakandans and was particularly thankful to Shuri for her attempts to help Vision.

Finally, Okoye got the word that Shuri would see Wanda, so Okoye gave her and the body of Vision a ride to the palace, and escorted her to the Princess' laboratory. Shuri smiled when she saw Wanda and gave her a warm and welcoming hug.

"Welcome back to Wakanda, Wanda," she said with a smile. Her eyes noticed the Infinity Stones, but her attention was drawn to Vision's body. Her face softened, "I am so sorry that this happened to him. It is a shame. Neither machine nor human, he was fascinating. An artificial man. And he was quite pleasant to talk to."

She shook her head softly, showing that she grieved with Wanda and then tilted her head. "Okoye said you came to see _me?_ What may I help you with, Wanda?" She suspected it had something to do with Vision, but she couldn't be sure.

Wanda closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. Finally, she opened her eyes once more, and replied, "I've come to ask a favor. I hope it's not presumptuous on my part. I need help restoring Vision. I need someone besides Tony and Bruce to be familiar with his structure and systems in case anything happens, and I need some special precautions… um… installed, I guess."

Shuri listened, and nodded, but then she finally nodded towards the Infinity Stones revolving around Wanda's hand. "I see you have the Infinity Stones that we tried to keep Thanos from collecting. If what I've heard is true, then you could simply decide that it was so, and Vision would be restored as you wish him to be. Why don't you just use them to do this, Wanda?"

Wanda felt her head swelling as it were about to burst. She pressed against her temples and sighed. Shuri could see how exhausted and drained she looked. Finally, Wanda managed to speak, "I could, yes. But then no one would be familiar with his structure and systems, and once the stones have been scattered if something happened to him, time would be wasted trying to figure out how to help him. I'm scattering these stones into the universe once I've done what I have to do. I won't be able to help him once they're gone.

"Please, Shuri, help me. Help _us._ I need to be sure this is done right, and that every possible fail safe I can think of is in place."

"Of course I'll help you," Shuri responded as she took Wanda's arm and helped her to a chair. "You don't seem to be feeling well. Do you wish me to call a doctor? And could you please place Vision upon the table? I need to make some scans, and design from those."

Wanda let her lead her to the chair and she sat, and she moved Vision's body to the table as Shuri asked. Shuri started the computer to scanning Vision's unique makeup, cataloging every synthetic organ, every connection, and every circuit, everything that made up his being.

Wanda waved her hand and shook her head at the idea of calling a doctor. "No, thank you. I'm fine, just tired. I've been going nonstop for a while now," she said softly. "I need to be able to reunite Vision with the Mind Stone, and have it integrate into his being as it was before. Is that possible?"

Shuri thought a moment as she monitored the scans being taken through several levels and different types of scans. "Yes, it's possible," she replied as she positioned a magnifier over Vision's forehead. "There are trillions of connections, but we aren't under attack this time, so it should be easier. I want to make sure we get this right, Wanda. This way, it affects Vision's well being as little as possible."

Wanda's eyes moved over the face of her friend, and Shuri could see the emotions playing over the Sokovian's face. "Can you repair him in such a way that the Mind Stone can be reinserted and removed at will?" Wanda asked. "Make it as strong a connection as before, but be able to remove it easily if the need should come up?"

Shuri looked through the lenses and computer screens of the apparatus she was using and adjusted a couple of settings before she answered, "I believe so, yes. I can make it where it will fool anyone looking at it into thinking it's a complete part of him and not removable, and it won't accidentally pop out. It could be easier to set the connections and synapses that way, actually. It'll take me a few hours, but I'll do my best."

Wanda nodded softly in satisfaction and pushed her hair back from her face. "Thank you, Shuri," she said quietly. "It's okay if it takes a while. I could use the break. I'll tell you everything that's going on when you're finished so you'll have the whole picture. It's nothing to harm anyone, I promise. It's just not a popular plan."

"I understand, Wanda," called Shuri from behind the large machine she was using. The computer's laser scans danced over Vision's gray body and damaged cranium. She adjusted settings as she went along. "I believe you. I'll do my best to be as quick as possible, but I won't sacrifice doing it right in favor of getting done, but you knew that already. There's a cot over there that I nap on. Feel free to use it."

"I know you won't Shuri, and thank you," replied Wanda sleepily. She looked over at the cot, and moved towards it. "I'll nap for an hour, and then I have to get busy. I've got a lot to do, and I hope to be finished with the Mind Stone and be able to bring it back to you by the time you're ready for it."

Shuri nodded and resumed her very delicate work while Wanda lay down on the cot and closed her eyes. Sleep didn't come immediately, but it didn't take long.

_We are growing closer to our achievement every moment, Wanda… Soon, reality will be repaired, we will be reunited, and I will once more be whole, for my essence and my body will be one, and I shall be with you. I sense that you have come to know fear that prompts you to question your sanity, and the validity of our purpose. I wish I knew how to assuage those doubts and fears for you. Trust in yourself, Wanda, for I trust in you…_


	8. Chapter 8

_**Avengers: Don't Get in My Way**_

**Chapter 8**

**AN** \- I apologize for the lengthy wait in between the last update and this one. I have health issues that keep me from doing a lot and that rob me of energy and the desire to do much of anything, and with this whole pandemic thing going on, it's even worse. It's been hard to get inspiration to write lately. Rather than try to force out a bad piece of writing for the sake of putting something out, I chose to put out something decent even though it took a while. Thank you to all my readers!

Carol Danvers took a good look around her at the beach combers that surrounded her. The beach was truly beautiful, and the day was perfect for a day at the beach. Unfortunately, she didn't have the luxury of having the time to slip into a bikini and join the masses in a day of recreation. There was a catastrophe brewing that would have universal repercussions, and they were all oblivious of the very real danger that hung over their heads unknowingly.

_Only we're all divided on what those repercussions might be, and what sort of catastrophe this will turn out to be,_ she thought with a sour taste in her mouth. She took a final glance around her, and then channeled her power. As she glowed a brilliant gold, she launched herself into the air and headed in the direction of upstate New York.

Below her, the land and ocean streaked by at speeds that made it impossible to discern anything but streaks of color. Usually, she flew much slower so that she could enjoy the wonders of the world passing below her. Unfortunately, she didn't have that opportunity that particular day. There was trouble brewing, a huge galaxy sized hunk of trouble, and she wasn't sure how she felt about it.

_Thanos fucked the entire universe with his delusional little plan. It turned the universe, and reality, on its ear. Half of all life in the universe just poofed out of existence. That kind of power is dangerous,_ she thought as the wind rushed past her face and ruffled its way through her hair.

_Yeah, but you know full well that while that sort of power is dangerous, it's true danger lies in the person wielding it and their intentions. The power doesn't make the decisions, the person does. They can be either good or bad, and honestly, is Wanda really losing her grip? Is she really insane and a danger to all of reality and the universe?_

_Let's look at this objectively, or try to anyway. Thanos was seeking power and remaking the universe in his own image. It doesn't matter that he claimed it was all for the good of the universe, to eliminate overcrowding, disease, famine, and all that from one side of the universe to the other. When it all comes down, he was a fucking fruitcake, trying to change things for selfish reasons, namely being the "savior" of the universe. Which, of course, is pure and utter bullshit._

_Some things are supposed to happen, and some things are not. If Thanos hadn't just decided that this is the way that things should have been and so shafted the laws of reality and existence, a huge chunk of what's happened so far would never have happened and things would have progressed naturally. People would have lived and died because of normal reasons in normal ways at the proper time, instead of being murdered by some psycho. Everything would have happened or not happened because that was the way they were supposed to happen._

She paused and drew a couple of deep breaths as she slowed her flight and hovered in mid air for a few moments. Her eyes drew over the mountain ranges, valleys, and plains below her. Even as fucked up a place as it was, this little blue marble could still take her breath away with its beauty. It was home, and home should be a place where things felt right, and that didn't fill you with absolute foreboding. Home shouldn't be some spiritually devastated place that filled you with emptiness and all the while never gave you a feeling of "rightness."

_I suppose you could argue that things happened exactly as God, or whatever Higher Power exists, intended. That Thanos was supposed to triumph and snap half of life out of existence for megalomaniac self centered delusions of grandeur. Somehow, though, I don't buy that. I can't and won't accept that the Creator of the universe would let some crazy, big, purple fuckwit with a ball sac for a chin run amok throughout all creation, and call himself "a god."_

_Then there's Wanda, an extremely powerful being in her own right, wielding the Infinity Stones to fix all the shit that Thanos twisted and generally fucked. She's not seeking power for the sake of power. She's not trying to remake the universe in her image, or trying to be the supposed savior of the universe. She's not trying to be a god. She just wants things to go back to the way they're supposed to be, the way things were before Thanos came along. Wanda doesn't want the stones, she just has to use them to fix what Thanos used them for. I doubt that she'd even go near them if they weren't the only way to fix everything. She just doesn't strike me as the type._

X

Captain Marvel touched down outside the Avengers Compound near the landing pad. As she suspected, the team had arrived and had entered the building. Though the sky was a brilliant blue, clear except for the tiniest wisps of clouds scattered across the sky like grains of salt, it felt like a massive and dark storm cloud loomed overhead. She shook her head as she pulled the door open and stepped inside and headed for the conference room.

As Carol entered the room, Clint was speaking rather loudly, "Look, I get it. You're concerned. She's freaking you out. She's acting a little kooky. Just because you _think_ she's crazy doesn't mean she _is_ crazy. What's crazier, some guy thinking he's saving the universe by destroying it and turning half the people in the universe to ash, or a young woman thinking she's talking to her dead lover while she's working with the stones, and that intends to _fix_ what Thanos did?"

"She means well, we understand that," countered Rhodey. He wiped his forehead with a hand, as he tried to gather his thoughts into something Clint and the others might have to change their viewpoints on. "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, Clint. She's family to all of us, she's someone we all care about. But whether we care for her or not, a threat is still a threat, and she's most definitely a threat. You've _got_ to be able to see that. It's right in front of your eyes."

Bruce stood up from where he was sitting, and glanced around at everyone. Both sides made valid arguments, and it was obvious that each side believed their position. He'd been trying to remain neutral, but he wasn't having much luck, it didn't seem.

Finally, he took advantage of the slight lull in the debate, and Carol's entrance as he interjected, "I get what you guys are saying. I think both arguments are definitely worth considering. There's just some facts that you _have_ to consider. Whether you think she's dangerous or not, what are her motives? Why is she doing this? Has anyone here ever known Wanda to be obsessed with power? Let's put opinions aside, and look at the facts, both objective and subjective."

Thor patted Carol's shoulder twice and then stepped out into the middle of the room. His frame wasn't quite as imposing as Bruce's was in his current state, but he cut a formidable presence all the same. He settled Stormbreaker's head on the floor and folded his hands over the end of the handle.

His eyes moved over everyone in the room, then spoke quietly, "She's dangerous, yes. We're _all_ dangerous. Our powers and our abilities make us dangerous. Wanda is no different. Personally, I have seen her take no action that was destructive or harmful. She could have disposed of us all with barely more than a blink of her eye. Yet, as Barnes pointed out, we're all here.

"I have heard her say nothing that suggests she means to anything or anyone. Her very demeanor speaks of nothing but sorrow, grief, and a desire to right what has been put wrong. This doesn't mean that she couldn't choose to behave differently in the future, no. As of this moment, however, she has remained true to her nature. I believe she has earned the benefit of the doubt. She was with Ultron when first we encountered her. She was our enemy, only because she knew not better. Once she saw into Ultron's mind, once she saw what lay in his intentions, she realized her mistake, and she joined our side. She is an Avenger. Not she _was_ an Avenger. She _is_ an Avenger. Let no one say otherwise."

Thor's words rang off the walls of the room, filling the silence that slowly settled on the room after he said what he had to say. Carol leaned casually against a wall with her arms loosely folded over her chest and watched them all before saying anything.

"I agree with Goldilocks here," she said, nodding her head towards Thor. "The universe is all fucked up. Thanos did a real number on it. Let's say any of _you_ had the ability and opportunity to use the stones. What would _you_ do with them? You wouldn't want to fuck the universe even more, right? You'd want to make sure everything happened the way it was supposed to, instead of this… this 'world' we're all currently drowning in. Can _any_ of you look me in the eye and tell me you _wouldn't? _I hate to break it to you, but if I had the ability to use the things, you can bet your ass I'd be doing _exactly_ what Wanda intends to do. Would I be crazy too?"

Most of the group hadn't spoken at that point. Even Dr. Strange had remained uncharacteristically quiet. Janet and Hope had managed to keep Hank's acerbic comments silent. Sam, Scott and Peter sat quietly, watching everyone intently, but not saying anything.

While everyone had been so intent on speaking their mind or listening, no one had noticed the door open and the newcomers that had entered. They had remained on the sidelines, out of the way, but that wasn't the case any longer. Finally, everyone started noticing, and looked that way to see Tony and Bucky standing just inside the room. There was someone standing behind them, but no one could tell who it was yet.

"No, I don't think you'd be crazy, Carol. You sound pretty rational to me. Don't you all think she sounds rational? She's got a point, ladies and gentlemen. It's a simple case of thinking and deciding what you would do in her place. We're all the good guys, right? We're those guys. What do good guys do? Besides kick the shit out of the bad guys I mean?" said Tony finally as he stepped forward to more easily address the room.

"Look… Stark," said Strange as he stepped away from where he sat at the conference table and met Tony's gaze. "I appreciate what you and the others think of and feel for Miss Maximoff. It's natural. You can't overlook the possibilities that could very well happen. Maybe they're even inevitable eventualities, we can't say for certain that they aren't."

"Yes, we _can,"_ interrupted Tony as he looked around the room. "I've seen her, I've talked to her. With me being here, it's a pretty safe bet to say of course I've talked to her. The kid may be in a bad place, she may be acting a little off, but she's not. She's _not._ How do I know she's not? Here, let me play show and tell, and let you see for yourselves. Pay attention, Merlin. This is the magic of science."

He moved over to the table and slid a round disk about the size of an air hockey puck into the middle of it. "Friday, thrill me. Light me up," he said glibly. "Okay, guys. School's in session. Pay attention, there will be a quiz afterwards."

Strange opened his mouth as if to protest, but the hologram that sprang out of the disk caught his attention. It was a strangely compelling grouping of swirls of light, bending and twisting about one another. There were points marked all through it, annotated with what appeared to be notes and even complex formulas.

"Okay, Tony, I'll bite," said Rhodey as he let his eyes roam over the impressive scientific display that he understood very little of its purpose, meaning, and what it was. "What are we looking at? What's this and how does this show us that Wanda's not crazy?"

Tony smiled and winked back at Bucky and the as yet unidentified person near the door, and then waved a hand to encompass the width of the hologram. "This, friends and neighbors and mildly annoying other people, come on, you know who you are, is a three dimensional model of the fabric of reality and time. Or at least a broad extrapolation of what the shape of these is. I think it's cool. How about you? You know what? Never mind. Just get ready to get your minds blown, because I wore my mind blowing shirt today."

Most of the group were staring in shocked silence as Tony had entered the room, and started talking. Hearing that Bruce had talked to him and that he was alive was one thing. Being physically in the same room as he was, and seeing him with your own eyes was an entirely different experience.

Bruce stepped closer to the hologram and stared up at it in obvious fascination. Finally, he said, "You've accounted for alternative causality, and temporal divergences. This is a 'map' for Wanda to follow, isn't it? Are these figures right? It's so mind blowingly complex it's simple. How the hell did you track all these divergences and drifts to begin with?"

"Wait, wait, wait," said Rhodey with an incredulous expression. "You're saying that you've actually made a model of reality? And that you've figured out all of… what are these? Changes? You figured this all out. Is this for real Tony, or are you just off your rocker? I don't get it. I'm still asking how this proves Wanda isn't crazy, and wrong?"

"I'm glad you asked," Tony replied with almost circus ringmaster air. "But first, let's answer big Jolly Green's questions. Sort of. More like inspiration, but you could look at it as sort of a map. Yes, of course they are. Isn't my math always right? I tracked them with Friday's help, of course. She correlated data from events major and minor that were stored in her memory and their probable result, and then compared them against the resulting shit that came after the Snap. I ran it with an inverted Mobius Strip, and the Sharapov theory, and bingo. A ha. Eureka. Excelsior. We have this."

He turned towards Rhodey, and leaned back against the table, half sitting on it. "Yep, sure did. As complete and accurate a model as is possible. I think it touches the highlights pretty well. But yes, you are quite astute my friend. Or is that ass toot? Either way, it's for real. It's the real deal. It's genuine, bona fide, correct, completely not wrong. How does it prove that Wanda isn't crazy and wrong?

"Well, let's explore that a minute. Okay, not a minute, a minute is too long. Let's do a second instead. As you can see, the changes that Thanos made are represented with black paths. See those jagged, vein looking lines around the points of those changes, and how sharply they break off from the events before that? The figures calculate probability, cause and effect, and various other calculations that I'm not going to go into detail about because no offense, but you wouldn't get to start with.

"Now, see these lines that are marked in green? Notice the lack of veins around them, and how they move more harmoniously with the path before it. The branches are wide and only occasionally. The black veins are where Thanos damned near shattered reality completely. What Wanda wants to do is consistent with the previous events, and flows along like a river. It's got a couple of branches and twists and turns, but these are natural causalities. So this is like a really overly complex 'you are here' and 'you want to go there' kind of map that she can follow to bend reality back into it's normal shape."

"This can't possibly account for the entire universe," said Strange after long moments of silence. "How do you think all of this is not going to shatter reality at some other point? The universe is infinite, with an infinite number of events having an infinite number of possibilities. All this proves is that these specific events, no matter how numerous, would benefit from her altering of reality."

Bruce spoke up and shook his head as he places his hands on the reinforced table as he replied, "That's a valid concern, but it's actually not as valid a point. Think about it. The points she's wanting to correct are the points that Thanos' actions specifically affected. Even though the trickle down eventually branches out into infinite causalities, if you correct the genesis point of each chain of changes, then that returns each change made subsequently back on it's prior natural path. It's like standing in the rain. The rain drops are falling straight down until they hit you, which stops their path from completing. In other words it redirects the natural flow of its intended result. If you correct that diversion point, which is you standing there, then it continues unimpeded. If you are no longer there to interrupt its path, then it can follow its path with no divergence."

"Which means it doesn't break reality. Instead it heals the cracks that Thanos caused," said Hank stroked his goatee thoughtfully as he stared at the model projected over the table. "You may be onto something here, Stark." He spoke as if pushing the words from his mouth was harder than holding back a tidal wave with your hand, but he admitted that Tony had figured something out that he hadn't.

The figure that had been standing near the door that no one had recognized stepped forward. He was an elder man, dressed simply in a light khaki jacket, perfectly unassuming. Even though he was much older, and slighter than he had been the last time he had stood in this room, Steve Rogers still commanded attention with his mere presence.

"I don't know about the math, or the metaphysical ramifications of all this, but I'll tell you what I _do_ know," he said as he swept his vision over every person assembled. "As I understand it, she's not going to be breaking anything, because she'll essentially be altering the point in time shortly _before_ Thanos takes the action that causes the break. You can't break something by preventing what broke it to start with. If she is by some miracle able to pull this off, then we'd never have had to go back in time to steal the stones, Nat would never have died, and everything else that happened because of that would be unnecessary.

"I don't want to change wanting to have gone back to live the life I've lived. Tony and Pepper would probably have had Morgan regardless of anything else. Scott would never have been trapped. None of the bad stuff would ever have happened, at least that's the thing that seems the most logical to me. At any rate, whatever it is that she's wanting to fix, I'm sure that the good stuff will stay, and the other stuff will be dealt with in whatever way she's going to fix it."

The room stayed silent at Steve's words, and he moved further into the room. He drew a deep breath and released it slowly before keeping the train of thought going, "I don't know anything about the science behind it, I only know that part of it makes sense to me. The thing that seems to be in even heavier debate than the science is Wanda and her grip on reality and her sanity.

"Maybe she's slipping, maybe she's not, I don't know. I'm no doctor. What I _do_ know is that she's not just part of the team. She's one of us. I know that as hard as it may be for a lot of you to accept, I believe her. I believe _in_ her. I trust her. Even if she were going crazy, unless she shows me that I'm wrong, I can't accept that she would purposefully hurt us, or anyone else. I don't care if you agree with me or not. You don't have to agree with me. I'm not here to tell you what to believe or not to believe. I believe in what she's trying to do, and I'll do whatever I can to make sure she has her chance to prove once and for all what she's doing and why. If I'm wrong about her and what she's doing, so be it. I'll be wrong. I can live with that. Can you live with trying to stop her based on what you _think might_ happen, instead of having a pretty clear picture of what is happening instead?"

The silence lingered still. Steve's words seemed to have the effect of making everyone consider their opinions and beliefs. When Captain America spoke, most listened. There was a whole room of people thinking right then at that moment.

Carol took a couple of steps out towards the table. Her eyes moved over the model of reality still projected above the table and made her decision.

"This is fun and all, but I have some things I have to do. I'll be back, don't know when," she said and then without any further word, she left the room, left the building and rocketed into the sky.

X

The sky was beautiful in Wakanda. Wanda sat on the balcony outside one of the magnificent rooms of the royal palace. Shuri had insisted that she rest at least a little while she continued to take her scans and design the necessary pieces to repair Vision's body. The young Sokovian breathed in the air, so pure, and so different than that of most American and European countries.

She looked over what she had written and tapped her pen on the table lightly. Even with the rest she'd had, she still felt drained, but at least the rest had rejuvenated her some. In an effort to get her plans straight on what she needed to do and when to do them, she had starting outlining her plan.

As she wrote, she kept trying to think if she was missing anything, or if she had forgotten anything. She knew that she would have to bring Vision and Nat back last, because that meant giving up two of the stones to accomplish that very task. She could set things right, then revive them, make sure Thanos and his minions would never be a threat, and scatter all the stones except for the Mind Stone and the Soul Stone to the sea of stars that was the universe.

A brightening of the light and a sound caught her attention and she looked up to see Carol coming to land on the veranda on just the other side of the table. She thought that perhaps she had been too predictable, allowing Carol to find her. She had no desire to hurt any of them, and she wouldn't. She just needed to keep them from stopping her. However, there was likely going to be some sort of combat as there had been the last time, and she knew that.

Instantly, she stood and her hands started writhing, bringing forth the red swirling energy that enveloped her hands when she summoned her powers from their relaxed and dormant state. The Infinity Stones whirled around her wrist, and glowed, but she hadn't drawn on their power as yet.

"I don't want to fight with you, Carol, so please, don't make me fight you," she said as the reddish energy about her hands glowed even brighter than before. "I have to do this. I _have_ to. This isn't right, none of this is right. You have to see that. I can't let you, any of you, keep me from setting this right."

Once Carol had landed, she hadn't come forward at all. Instead, she stood the same distance from Wanda. She raised her hands, open with her palms facing the Sokovian, indicating that she was being neutral. The golden glow about her dimmed and receded until it was gone.

"I'm not here to fight," responded the Kree hybrid as she cautiously stepped a couple of slow steps forward. "I just want to talk. Some of the others think you're a threat and that you've lost your marbles, the others believe in what you're wanting to do and don't want to try to stop you."

Wanda regarded the other woman for a moment before lowering her hands and letting the red energy dissipate. "I figured as much," she told the blonde warrior. "So which side do you stand on? Are you here to try to talk me out of it? Are you here to try to convince me I'm wrong? Forgive me if I'm not entirely convinced that talk is the extent of your reason for being here."

Carol took another step, and opened her mouth to answer, but paused. A slow half smile came over her face and she nodded towards the stones hovering over Wanda's wrist. "You have telepathic powers, and you have the Mind Stone. There's no way I could hide anything from you, or trick you without you knowing instantly about it if you add the Mind Stone to your own powers. That sounds like the ultimate lie detector to me. So, let's do this. Use the Mind Stone, read my mind. If I'm lying about anything, even slightly, you'll know it."

Wanda frowned and stared at the woman for several seconds. Carol was willing to open herself up fully. There was no way she could resist the Mind Stone, or do anything to block its ability. She couldn't hide anything anywhere in her mind. If it was there, Wanda would see it.

_If she is attempting to deceive you or hide anything from you, she is taking an enormous risk by willingly allowing us to look into her mind, Wanda… Perhaps things are precisely as they appear to be… Be wary, but let us look into her mind… She offered, after all…_

"You've got a point. If you're willing, as you say you are, relax and don't resist," Wanda replied in a quiet voice, warning Carol to not try to trick her, but lacing it with the sincerity of her not wishing to fight.

Carol nodded, and Wanda took a deep breath. She focused herself, focused her breathing and reached across the short distance between them and with the faintest of brushes, she entered Carol's mind. It was like being submerged in a cold bath from a warm room, and then just as suddenly it was like rising from a pool of hot soothing water.

Wanda's presence moved through Carol's mind slowly. Every alcove, every corner of her mind, conscious and subconscious, was visible for her to see, hear, smell, taste and touch at her leisure. She could see the conversations that she had listened to and been part of with the others. She experienced thoughts and memories of singing karaoke with her friend Maria. Flashes of the sky rushing past as she flew Dr. Lawson's experimental plane swept over her like honey. Echoes of her thoughts about Wanda, about what she was doing, how dangerous she might be, everything she ever thought about Wanda swam around the young Sokovian.

_She cannot possibly be deceiving you, Wanda… Even if she were subjected to an extremely powerful suggestion, or if memories were walled off from the bulk of her mind by a powerful telepath, they would be visible and accessible to you… She believes us, she knows that what we seek to do is the right thing to do…_

Finally, Wanda withdrew her mind back from reading Carol's and sat down. She waved a hand to indicate that Carol sit as well. She met the eyes of the other woman and tilted her head ever so slightly. "So, you believe me?" she asked.

Carol breathed a sigh of relief, and nodded. She was glad she wasn't going to have to go toe to toe with Wanda. That was a fight she knew she wouldn't win alone, and honestly, she doubted she'd actually win even with everyone else with her. Wanda was incredibly powerful on her own, though she wasn't aware of the extent of her abilities and how much power she could wield. With the stones, there was no way any of them would stand a chance really. Thanos had wielded the stones to enact crude needlessly violent actions. Wanda had already proven that in the heat of battle, she could disable, disarm, and disperse all of them without anyone suffering a single bruise. She was not only more defensive with them than Thanos had been, she was also calmer and more imaginative. She visualized ways to accomplish her goals without having to thunder through them like a maddened bull. The young Sokovian could eliminate a problem without a needless show of brute force, and without harming or killing anyone to achieve her goal.

"Yeah, I do," replied Carol finally. She made immediate eye contact with Wanda, and never allowed it to slip. "You know, there's been a fuck ton of debate about this, about you, about whether or not you're crazy, about whether this is right or wrong, and what it would mean scientifically if you actually did this.

"Cookie Jarvis has been shooting off at the mouth a lot about how you'd destroy reality, and how you're such a threat and all that shit. Wizards, oh, excuse me, _sorcerers_ should really stay in D&D games, in Tolkien and other fantasy books, and on cereal boxes. The guy's a prick. Good guy to have on your side, but his attitude and ego makes Tony's look like Fozzie Bear."

"So I imagined," Wanda answered with a hint of depression in her voice. It hurt for those so close to her to be so divided on her state of mind and actions. "I wish they could understand, that they could see what I'm trying to do and why. It's not just to bring Vision back. God, I feel so empty without him, I feel like dying without him, but my pain isn't the only pain I'm trying to wipe away. Trillions of people lost people they shouldn't have, countless sorrows of all kinds have been inflicted on countless people. Thanos should never have been able to turn reality into a train wreck and hurt so many people in so many ways. That wrong needs to be righted."

Carol huffed a half laugh, and shrugged a shoulder. "A lot of them do understand and see what you're trying to do. A lot of them don't, though. Either way, though, I think that might be changing even as we speak. Tony brought in his Lite Brite thingie with the whole reality map thing. Green Jeans seemed to get it. The rest, not so much. Well, the old grouchy guy with the goatee seemed to get it.

"I think the big brains were starting to get it through the rest of the skulls in the room. Tony and Bucky brought this old fart in, and he laid down a pretty heavy speech that looked like it got everybody to thinking. It shut Rhodey up for a few minutes, so it had a pretty deep impact I guess. They weren't trying to kill each other when I left, anyway."

Wanda frowned in confusion and tilted her head as she asked, "Old fart? Oh! You must mean Steve. Captain America. It's a long story, but when they were putting the stones back in the past, apparently he stayed in the past. Some of the guys were talking about it."

Carol's brows rose in surprise. She hadn't even thought about that, but then again, she hadn't been around for most of that, she thought. "Well, he did seem familiar. I guess that's why," she finally said.

"I've already started on setting things right. I brought Tony back last night," Wanda breathed out softly. "But I also did something I doubt they like. I brought my brother back too. He died several years ago. Sadly though I told him what I was doing, he agreed with those that say I shouldn't be doing this and must be stopped. I was hoping he'd understand, but I can see why he wouldn't."

A smile played about the corners of Carol's lips, and when Wanda frowned in confusion, Carol let the smile come out even more. "Oh, I don't know about that. I think maybe his brain may be thawing out. I don't think you're going to have to deal with your brother opposing your view for long. He and Strange almost got into it, from what I heard. All because Strange was talking about how crazy you were and that what you were planning was wrong."

Wanda allowed herself a small smile as she nodded softly towards her friend. She felt much better hearing that. Pietro's opposing opinion had bothered her far more than she had let on. If he was truly coming around to her way of thinking, she felt like she could actually move forward without conflict.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Avengers: Don't Get in My Way**_

**Chapter 9**

"Okay, we need to figure out our game plan. If we're going to stop her, we're going to have to hit her hard and fast, and keep her off balance," said Rhodey as he looked around at the others. "We're not trying to hurt her, just stop her."

His expression was grim and serious. It was obvious from his face that he was absolutely _convinced_ that this was the right course of action. If he was the only one that could see that, so be it. He was going to do whatever he had to do to keep the universe safe from another round of Infinity Stone bullshit, even if that meant going against his best friends.

The conversation had fallen into a silence before Rhodey's sudden proclamation. Eyes turned towards him and a scowling Thor stepped forward, obviously annoyed. "Perhaps you did not understand our words, Rhodes. We had spoken of confronting her, and speaking to her. We were to observe her and decide whether our action taken should be to stop her from her task, or to let her proceed, and even aid her if we should so decide. We were _not_ of the mind to challenge her unless there was no other choice."

Doctor Strange sighed and shook his head as this argument began once again. It seemed as if it would never end, for each side was unwilling to concede the battle between them.

"Maybe _you_ were not of the mind to challenge her," said the Sorcerer Supreme as once more he entered the debate. He paused and took another breath, and then made another attempt to entreat the Asgardian to see reason. "Thor, you said yourself that she's dangerous. That's not something we can just shrug off lightly. Good intentions or not, this will very likely turn into something more dangerous than it would be beneficial."

"Look, Thor, we can try to go in without hurting her, but there's a chance there's going to be some collateral damage," Rhodey chimed in as he pushed off from the wall. "We can sit here and argue until we're all blue in the face. Maybe she'll realize just how crazy this is and she'll listen to reason. Maybe we might have to take her down. If it comes to that, we'll try and do it as calmly and gently as we can, though I have to tell you, I'm not optimistic that it'll go that well."

"It all comes down to this," added Strange with a grim expression of his own. "We'll try it your way. We'll _try_ it like that. But you have to accept there's no guarantee that it won't get ugly. We don't want that, but we have to accept the fact that it could go unfavorably."

Bucky stood abruptly, and put a hand lightly on Clint's chest. Clint had stepped forward with a furious expression and that was only going to make the conflict worse than it already was. Bucky felt calmer and able to speak coherently without punching both Strange and Rhodey. _Maybe I'm calmer than Clint, but not by fucking much,_ Bucky thought.

Bucky's voice rang out from their left, "Take it from somebody that's been in plenty of wartime battles. If you go in with that attitude, that's how it's going to go down. You're going in _expecting_ it to go that way. It's almost like you _want _ it to go that way. You're not even seriously considering the remotest possibility that she may be right, that what she's doing is the right thing."

"You've already decided that she's wrong and you think you're going to do everything you can possibly do to prove to us that she's wrong and that you're right," piped up Pietro. His voice shook with the anger that was evident on his face, and his fists clenched slowly and tightly. "I'd rethink that strategy if I were in your place. You may find your ass kicked before your ears have even caught my words. So, ironic as it might sound coming from me, slow down and think about it carefully before you go marching off to go up against my sister."

Tony had had enough. He turned from where he'd been examining his holographic model of reality and slammed a hand hard down on the table. The action stunned the argument into silence.

"You know what? The kid's right. Sister or no sister, that doesn't mean he's wrong. You keep saying that she 'might' be crazy, but you've already got it in your heads that she _is_ crazy. 'Crazy' is kind of a relative term, don't you think? Don't you think you should at least give the idea that she's _not_ crazy a little bit of mulling over before just summarily deciding that she _is_ crazy?"

Thor released a heavy breath as he listened to all this and looked around the room. The few that doubted Wanda bristled at Tony's admonition but remained quiet. The rest scowled in aggravation that they just couldn't seem to wrap their minds around the concept they were trying to drill into the doubter's heads.

"You think that she's lost her hold upon her reason and senses still then?" Thor asked in a quiet tense voice. "Let us see _once and for all_ if that is indeed the case. Let us have or leave no doubt as to Wanda's state of mind. I know how to discover just this very fact, and leave no doubt in either case."

Before anyone could ask the Asgardian what he was talking about and what he had in mind, Thor strode purposefully through the door and outside onto the compound grounds. He cast them all a hard, determined glance, and then hefted Stormbreaker and rose into the air like a rocket. In seconds, he disappeared from their sight.

The others looked around at everyone else with an expression of confusion. Whatever Thor's plan was, they were all mystified and clueless as to what it might be. An odd feeling spread amongst the remaining heroes.

X

Once the rest of the group had returned to the main room, Steve stroked his chin in thought. Finally, he came to his decision and then stepped forward to where the others were talking amongst themselves and grabbed Tony by the elbow. With a gentle but insistent force, he dragged the billionaire from the clustered group.

Steve remained silent as he continued to guide Tony by the arm. They exited the main room and walked along the corridor before exiting the building through the nearest door. The door closed and Tony stopped as Steve moved them towards a bench and sat down.

"Okay, out with it. What's on your mind? What gives, Cap? You didn't tug me out here to play checkers. So, give it. Let me have it," Tony said in his normal irreverent manner, but considerably quieter than he might normally say such a thing.

The man, much much older than Tony remembered him before they had returned from the past, stared out across the grounds of the compound for a long silent moment. His lips tugged upwards slightly as he turned his attention and gaze towards Tony.

He paused a moment longer, then said, "Tell me what you think about all this, Tony. What you _really_ think, not what you think I want to hear. I know you, and when you're this quiet, it means you've got something serious going on in that mind of yours. You don't believe Wanda is crazy at all, do you? I know you said you agreed with her, but you've been known to change your mind from time to time."

"Ah, Cap, you know me too well. Now Pepper is going to be asking you for pointers. That's a bad, bad grandpa," Tony joked quietly as he regarded his friend. "But you want to know what I think? Really? Okay, I'll tell you. I'm not going to lie, I think we have to be careful. If it turns out that Wanda really _has_ bought a ticket for the crazy train, then things are going to get messy.

"But I tell you, Cap, I _don't_ think she's crazy. Not even close. I _talked_ to her when she brought me back. I _listened_ to her, not just to what she said, but how she said it. I looked the kid in the eye. Believe me, I looked for _any_ indication that she was whacko, and I didn't see _any_ sign she was nuts. Honestly, I think _she's_ more sane than all of _us_ are."

Steve chuckled and nodded. He rested his elbows on his knees, folded his hands one over the other and rested his chin upon them. His gaze returned to the grounds once more. "You might just be right about that, Tony. Wanda's a good kid, she's got a good heart, and I believe that it's in the right place. I believe what she is doing is not only what she thinks is right, I feel it _is_ right.

"My heart and gut tell me with every single fiber of what I am that she's not only got good intentions. What she's thinking, what she's planning…I have to say it, it seems logical to me. It _feels_ right. For better or worse, I believe her, Tony. If I'm wrong…that's just something I'm going to have to figure out how to deal with. But I _know_ she's right. It might not make much sense scientifically, but then again they said the same thing about Doctor Erskine's idea and experiment. For better or worse, his idea is sitting here next to you."

Tony regarded his friend once more in silence for several moments. Steve may have a sort of naïve "giddy optimism" about him, but as much as he hated to admit it, the man out of time was often right. Sometimes far too often. This was one of those times that Tony thought it _wasn't_ too often that Steve was right. For whatever else he and Tony might disagree on, this was something they were definitely on the same page together with.

"You know what? There's probably a war as bad as our fight with Thanos going on in there right now. We might ought to go in there and do something about that. I think so, don't you?" Tony asked with his signature glib smile as he rose from the bench.

Steve laughed briefly as he stood as well. "I think we just might. We're lucky that the building hasn't exploded I think. Fuses were rather short," he replied.

X

The sky over the mansion secluded behind trees and hills in Westchester, New York suddenly darkened with a storm cloud. A bright flash of jagged lightning lanced across the sky, and the rolling crack and rumble of thunder rattled the windows of the mansion as Thor touched down on the ground. Immediately, the sky began to clear and return to it's bright, wispy clouded state that it had been in only moments ago.

As he looked up, a young woman turned towards him with a half smile gracing her lips. The woman had skin that was tinted a color roughly the shade of milk chocolate. Her long flowing white hair fell to her shoulders and her crystal ice blue eyes settled on the Asgardian as she stepped forward to meet him.

"I thought that might be you," she said in a silky voice with only the vaguest touch of an accent as she stretched up on her toes and hugged the large man affectionately. "Who else has to announce his arrival so dramatically? What brings you to Westchester?"

The large Asgardian hugged the svelte young woman fondly and chuckled softly as they began to walk along the path leading back to the house together. "Storm, it is so very good to see you again. It has been some time, indeed." His face grew more serious as he stopped and turned towards her. "I am afraid it isn't simply for pleasure, regrettably. I must speak with Charles, it's rather urgent, I fear."

The woman called Storm's delicate brows drew together in a crinkle as she started walking again towards the house. "That's a shame. I know everyone would enjoy seeing you. I'm sure Charles will be happy to give you all the time you need. I'll let him know you're here, though my money is on him already knowing you're here."

Thor chuckled softly once more and nodded as they entered the house and stood in a large foyer with an elaborate staircase leading up along the wall. "Little escapes Charles' attention. I am quite sure he knows I'm here already, as well. I thank you for your help, dear lady. As always, you are as kind as you are lovely," Thor said with a more pronounced smile than he previously wore.

Storm slowed her pace and glanced over her shoulder with a quick wink and grin. "Flattery will get you nowhere, Thor…well, almost nowhere anyway," she said laughing softly, a musical sound. "Come on, you can wait in his office. I'll go get him for you. Relax and make yourself comfortable."

Thor followed the young woman down the hall and into a very elegant room. A massive, heavy wooden desk with a highly polished top dominated half of the floor. It was surrounded by finely crafted bookcases, stuffed full of magnificent volumes encompassing many subjects. He sat on the large and comfortable plush couch and rested Stormbreaker carefully against the arm of the couch with it's heavy head on the floor.

He didn't have to wait long. A few moments later, the door opened, and the whirring sound of Charles' motorized wheelchair met Thor's ears as he came into the room and stopped before the tall man with his hand extended.

"Thor, my friend, it's good to see you again. Considering what we've all endured the past few years, any pleasure, no matter how small, is to be treasured. A visit from a friend, even an urgent one, is a welcome thing," the older man said as he firmly shook Thor's hand.

Thor stood and returned the older man's gesture before sitting down once more. Charles wheeled around him to stop behind his desk. As always, he regarded Thor with a kind gaze, but a gaze also full of understanding. Charles would never read anyone's mind without their consent, but being one of the strongest telepaths in the world, it understandably must be difficult for him to block out all thoughts all the time.

"Indeed, my friend. The prompt for my visit is not only urgent, but also imperative," he answered. "I fear things are quite dire and decisive action must be taken quickly to keep your world safe. I…_we_ require your help, if you are willing to give it. This affects all worlds and all reality itself, and must be handled both delicately and expediently."

Charles sighed softly and nodded. "It has to do with Wanda, doesn't it?"

Most would have asked how Charles could possibly know, but Thor was more than aware of Charles' abilities. It would make more sense to ask how he didn't know if he were unaware of the situation's existence at the very least.

"I fear it does, my friend. Since her return from the nothingness that Thanos condemned her and countless others to, her grief at Vision's death, and rage at the state of the universe that Thanos caused has swept her along on its currents.

"She has retrieved the Infinity Stones and is wielding them with the intent to put right the devastation that Thanos wrought upon the universe. It is her intent to use the Stones to repair this damage, and then scatter the Stones to the universe's width and breadth."

Charles listened to him, absorbing every word with the utmost concentration and gravity they deserved. He steepled his fingers before him and regarded Thor with a serious gaze. "I have felt the power of the Stones when they found their way back to Earth. I wasn't aware that Wanda had them. She is one of very few beings that could hope to wield them without causing their own demise. Tell me more, please, Thor," he said in a soft and calm voice.

Thor collected himself and leaned forward from the couch, a sign of his determination and need. "She has harmed no one, and has caused no destruction. She has, however, brought both her brother and Stark back from the arms of death. The Avengers are divided. Some favor her intent and actions, and seek to aid her to realize them. Others vehemently oppose her intent and actions, and seek to prevent her from accomplishing her goals. They believe her absent of mind and senses, they believe that she is insane and is a threat that must be stopped. It is their belief that she represents an incomprehensible danger to the fabric of space and reality itself, and that she will cause destruction never before seen in all the realms of the universe," he answered with more speed than he had intended.

Charles took the information in and thought intently on each word that Thor had said. "It seems that they believe the same thing about Wanda that we were faced with several years ago, when Jean was possessed by the Dark Phoenix entity. She nearly destroyed the world, and would have caused unfathomable destruction throughout the universe," he answered the Asgardian finally.

"I haven't felt any sort of psychic disturbance of that magnitude, or any disturbance reaching any catastrophic magnitude that would present a threat to us. If such a disturbance did, in fact, exist, I am sure that I would have detected it's power by now. Such thoughts cannot be contained in anyone's thoughts. Even Thanos couldn't hide them when he was here, they were readily detectable. I can't believe that Wanda could hide such impulses and thoughts any better than Thanos could. With the involvement of the Infinity Stones, the chances of my not having felt any such danger is absolutely impossible."

Thor nodded in understanding and agreement. "You speak the truth, my friend. I knew this would be the case. I have come to ask a favor of you, if you are willing. A favor that shall put to rest once and for all that Wanda is _not_ mad as several have decided. I do not believe her to be insane, and _will not_ believe her to be so unless I can be shown without the slightest shade of doubt that she _is_ in fact insane," he stated with a steely conviction.

Charles nodded softly as he listened. Finally, he said, "Of course I'll do it, Thor. I don't believe Wanda is insane any more than you do, not from what you've told me and what the absence of major destruction shows me. You know where she is, I presume?"

"Aye, I do," nodded Thor. "She is in Wakanda at the palace of T'Challa. She seeks Shuri's help in restoring Vision's body so that he may be resurrected to his rightful state of living."

"As I would expect," Charles answered. With the slightest of frowns, he reached out with his thoughts, _Clarice, my dear, would you mind coming to my office? A friend and I require your assistance if you would be so kind._

Charles wheeled himself from behind the desk as he got an affirmative from Clarice. Seconds later, she entered the office through the door. She started when she saw Thor, obviously expecting someone else. "Um, hello, Thor. I'll be happy to help, Professor. What do you need me to do?" she asked as she recovered her composure.

"You remember Clarice, don't you, Thor? She's going to save us considerable time and trouble by assisting us," he said as he came to Thor's side.

"Indeed I do. Well met, Clarice…or do you prefer Blink? I am appreciative of your help and in your debt."

"Either is fine," she replied with a slight blush to her cheeks. "It's no problem, really. Where am I sending you two?" She was already centering herself to create a portal.

"Wakanda, to the palace of T'Challa," replied Thor as he took the handles of Charles' chair. "You have my thanks once more, Clarice."

Clarice nodded softly and then concentrated. An opening appeared in the air before her and it grew larger. Its fiery pink corona crackled as the Wakandan palace became visible through the opening. She gave them a light smile as they moved through the portal and far away to the African nation of Wakanda.

X

Wanda stood near the table, watching anxiously as Shuri continued to work. An array of laser beams was helping to structure pathways and seal synaptic nodes to accommodate the seating for the Mind Stone once it could be returned to Vision's body. The young woman's face was a study in concentration as she carefully manipulated trillions of connections with an artist's deftness.

Wanda waited until Shuri paused for a break, and asked quietly, "I don't want to pester you, but how's it going? Is everything going as planned?" Her eyes sought out the eyes of the young scientist, searching them for any sign she could find. A sign of anything, good or bad, that she would carry in her eyes.

Shuri could see the anxiety on Wanda's face. She could literally _feel_ it filling the room, a cloying, claustrophobic push that seemed to thicken the air. Shuri sighed, and then smiled wanly.

_She is extremely anxious, but wouldn't I be in her place? The love between her and Vision is very strong, and easy to see. When she was here last fighting Thanos' forces, I could see and feel it. I see and feel it now just as strongly. I can't blame her for being anxious. The burden she has placed upon her own shoulders is unimaginable. It only shows the will and strength of her convictions. We should all love so strongly. Love our significant others, and love for everyone else, love enough for them all to risk what she's risking, to try to find the strength to do what no one else can hope to do,_ she thought as she stretched and let her eyes rest.

Shuri shook herself from her thoughts and nodded as she rubbed her forehead. "Everything is going wonderfully. The pathways are reconstructing very well, and they are accepting the seat I'm building to allow the Stone to be situated upon his brow. The synaptic bridges are connecting and functioning as designed. Vision will soon be whole again," she said with an excitement in her voice. "The rebuilding of his brain went exceptionally well. The design of the synthetic organs integrated with the circuitry is astonishing."

The tension in Wanda's face and body washed away to be replaced by relief for a few moments. Her voice shook as she gazed at Shuri in awe, "Thank you, thank you, Shuri. That's so wonderful to hear. I can feel the fist squeezing my heart loosening some finally. Soon, very soon, I can make things right again, make things be as they should be. I'm so grateful to you."

The young Sokovian hugged the Wakandan princess tightly for a moment and let go. Shuri felt the tension that eased from Wanda ease from herself as well. "I am more than pleased to be able to help you both. It's an amazing opportunity from a strictly scientific point of view, and I would be glad to do it for that alone, but it's much more than that. You both are my friends, and it pains me to see you in such pain because he's lost to you. I will do everything I can to help you both, Wanda."

Wanda fell silent and seemed to be listening to something far away, or trying to interpret some feeling she was suddenly having. Shuri chose not to disturb whatever Wanda was dealing with at that moment. The young woman's lovely features had hardened into a resigned scowl.

_It is a wonderful thing to know that we shall soon be reunited, my love… unfortunately, it appears that it will have to wait even a bit longer than planned… The others have arrived and are approaching the palace… We can only hope that this will not devolve into a confrontation comparable to the last meeting we had…_

"I pray that they won't insist on making a difficult scene out of all this," Wanda whispered half to herself, and half to the voice of Vision in her mind. "I hope they are beginning to see that this must be done. We can't leave things as they are. _I_ can't leave things in this hell that Thanos created."

With a sad sigh, she walked to the large window and looked down towards the main path leading to the palace. She was surprised to see Carol walking their way, apparently to greet them at the gate, so to speak.

Outside, Carol sauntered up to the approaching group looking very relaxed and at ease. She glanced at all of them in turn and then shook her head, tsk tsking them as she did so. "What, no flowers and chocolates? Really? And here I thought you guys were supposed to be gentlemen. You guys look like a military parade coming up here like this. What's on your mind, boys?"

The group of Avengers stopped in surprise. They hadn't expected Carol to be there, and certainly didn't expect her to be as at ease as she seemed. While it wasn't the entire team, there were enough of them to look like this visit was more than a social call.

Rhodey glanced at the rest of the group and stepped forward. Apparently, he was appointing himself the spokesperson for the group at the moment. "Come on, Carol. You know why we're here. Wanda's here. We've got to meet with her, and get this all straightened out before it gets too tangled to straighten out. She needs to come out now, surrender the Stones, and come back with us. Nobody's gotten hurt up to this point, and we'd like to keep it that way. She has to see reason," he said with a resigned tone.

"Don't mind Grumpy Smurf here. I think he forgot to wear his underwear and the armor is probably chafing his willy. Really irritating when that happens. The armor definitely isn't Armani," Tony said as he came up and put a hand on Rhodey's armored chest.

"We just want to talk to Wanda, and make sure she's okay, Carol. We're worried about her, and we want to try and understand exactly what she wants to do. Maybe if we understand it better, maybe we can convince those of us who aren't exactly on Team Wanda to consider what's happening before just assuming the worst," Bruce said as he stepped out from behind Rhodey as well.

Carol looked them all over carefully, gauging their intent from the clues on their faces. She knew Tony, Bruce and several of the others understood what Wanda was trying to do, and wouldn't lose their minds, but it seemed like Rhodey still hadn't climbed on board yet. Judging from the expression Doctor Strange wore, it was obvious that like before, he and Rhodey were still the ringleaders of the "against Wanda" side of the board.

"You know, this is all getting pretty tiresome. I mean, seriously, come on. You said it yourself, nobody's gotten hurt. That doesn't seem like the evil, diabolical, self proclaimed empress of the universe some of you are trying to make her out to be to me," she said in what almost sounded like a bored tone.

"Instead, it sounds like a bunch of insecure guys threatened by the fact that a woman has the strength and resolve to do something you know you can't do and you want to shut her down as quickly as possible. You can't get over your goddamned bloated self images long enough to even think about considering that maybe she's right? That this cosmic shit show that Thanos left us with _needs_ to be corrected and reset?

"Think about it. You're telling everyone, you're telling _me_ that you _want_ to stay hip deep in this shit that we're calling a world instead of trying to make it what it's _supposed_ to be, and not _this_ bullshit? You know as well as I do that if Thanos hadn't come along and waved his tiny little purple dick around, things wouldn't be _anything_ like _this._ What you're living in now, _that's_ the fucking disaster, not what Wanda intends to do," she ranted in a low growling voice.

Doctor Strange suddenly pushed some of the others out of his way and came to stand beside Rhodey. "Okay, that's enough. I've heard all of this that I need to hear. Miss Maximoff, no matter how good her intentions are, is _wrong._ There's no debate, no discussion, no 'town hall meeting' that's going to make what she's doing right. She's messing with forces she can't possibly comprehend, and threatening to destroy everything that is. The time for talking is over," he said in an exasperated tone, glaring at Carol.

"And you think you _can_ comprehend them?" asked a voice from behind Carol. Wanda came closer and stood slightly in front of and to the side of Carol. "Are you arrogant enough to think that because you wear that cape and that gold amulet, and wave your hands around that you are the only one that can possibly understand the universe and the workings of reality?"

Wanda's eyes glowed a vivid gold that was rapidly shifting into a hellish red, the same sort of red her powers manifested in. She stepped forward a couple of steps and fixed Strange's eyes with her own.

"Ohhhh shit," murmured Clint as he moved closer to where Wanda was standing. He had seen enough of her powers, been around her enough to know that the stronger and more primal her emotions got, the stronger and more powerful her powers got. _As pissed off as she is at this moment, she doesn't_ need _the goddamned stones to turn his reality inside out. His mouth is about to write a check his ass can't possibly hope to cash,_ he thought as he tried to catch her attention and take it away from Strange as quickly as possible.

"I comprehend them better than you can hope to, Miss Maximoff. I'm the Sorcerer Supreme. It's my job and calling to not only understand them, but to protect them as well," Strange said in a cold tone. His own temper was obviously flaring as they faced down one another.

"Are you really?" asked Wanda with a cutting sarcasm. "Let me congratulate you on your absolute failure to do just that when Thanos twisted the universe into this."

She had ignored Clint completely for the moment, and raised her shoulders in a shrug while she lifted her arms with her palms upwards, indicating the universe at large. The move was in no way threatening, but it was the spark that lit the fire.

Before anyone could say another word, Rhodey fired his repulsors at Wanda, and struck her hard. The young woman was caught off guard and flew backwards from the concussive force of the weapons. Instantly, Rhodey followed up with several miniature rockets, modified for this particular instance and threat. They exploded against Wanda's chest and shoulders, and knocked her further backwards as the Stones whirled rapidly around her wrist.

Strange immediately stepped forward and made arcane gestures with his hands. Mystic energies surged from him and tried to slip in between Wanda's wrist and the Stones. He was attempting to pry them off, as Rhodey kept her busy.

In the confusion, many of the others hesitated and then moved to help subdue her before things got truly ugly. Whether they agreed with her and were on her side or not, Rhodey's attack had angered Wanda and they knew they had to calm her down before she decimated them all.

"Stop! Don't do it!" yelled Tony as he grabbed Rhodey's arm and jerked it back from it's position firing at Wanda. "Are you fucking _crazy?_ She shrugged!"

Pietro stood shocked and frozen in place, unable to believe his eyes. Wanda had taken no aggressive action, and suddenly he was surrounded by fighting, engulfed in the conflict. He wanted to move, to get involved, to help Wanda but his legs wouldn't work. He was too shocked by the ridiculous attacks on Wanda.

"_Fuck!"_ yelled Clint as he drew his bow and nocked an arrow. With practiced speed, he let it fly. It struck the ground in front of Wanda and a very dense cloud rose from the ruptured arrow head, obscuring her from their vision, and keeping her from seeing them as well. "Now you've done it, goddamnit! You thought she spanked your ass before, just wait until she gives you her second lesson!"

As soon as the first repulsor blast was fired, Steve leaped into action. Even at his age, the super soldier serum in his body served him well. He snatched up the shield and jumped into the fray between his friends and Wanda. With a quick movement, he threw the shield.

Instantly, it flew towards Doctor Strange and struck him in the chest and knocked him back onto his ass in the grass. Before he could hit the ground, the shield bounced off him and struck Rhodey's free hand and spoiled his aim before ricocheting back into his hands.

A harsh gust of wind suddenly sprung up and cleared the air of the cloud that Clint's arrow had produced. An unseen force grabbed all those that had attacked her and held them suspended ten feet off the ground, rendered helpless. They were thoroughly neutralized, unable to move or get free.

"Are you guys fucking insane?" bellowed Bruce as he stopped in mid attempt to prevent the sorcerer Wong from casting a spell to help Strange try to pry the Stones from Wanda's possession. When the portly man was suddenly suspended, he turned and glanced at the battlefield, because that's precisely what it had become. "She wasn't attacking! We came here to _talk_ to her!"

Rhodey grunted in frustration as he tried to free himself from the unseen grip and resume his assault on the young woman. Try as he might, he made absolutely no progress. "I can't move!" he growled out in impotent anger.

Tony looked up at his friend and shook his head. "It serves you right, you idiot. Like the big man said, we came here to talk to Wanda. You've heard the phrase 'I do my talking with my hands instead' a couple of times too many. Jesus, what the hell is _wrong_ with you guys? I'd say you guys jumped the gun, but that wouldn't cover it. You jumped the goddamned nuclear warhead," he said in exasperation.

Wanda composed herself as she stood once more, and brushed her hair back from her face. At that moment, everyone that carried a weapon saw their weapons disappear into thin air, as if they'd never been there. With another wave of her hand, Rhodey's armor disappeared and he slid to the ground where Tony caught him. He couldn't move because of the damage to his spine from several years earlier.

"Your weapons, and Rhodey's armor, are back where you keep them. They are undamaged and safe, just as you are undamaged and safe," she said sounding winded. She wiped a small trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand.

Steve took advantage of the slight lull in conversation and moved out to stand in the middle of the entire group. He was an imposing figure, even at his advanced age. His gaze swept over all of them, and his eyes focused on each person's eyes for a moment.

He exhaled a long breath and kept sweeping his gaze over them all. "Well, that was probably the most ill conceived assault I've ever seen enacted, I think. What were you thinking? Wanda made no kind of threatening move whatsoever. She shrugged, for God's sake. Someone shrugs, and you try to blast them as if they were Thanos? How did that work out for you, huh?"

Nobody said a word, leaving a silence hanging in the air, so Steve continued, "Like Tony and Bruce said, we came here to talk. That's it. That's all. It doesn't matter if you think she's right or wrong. It doesn't matter if you agree with her or not. It doesn't matter if you think she's dangerous or not. What matters is that she's one of _us._ She's as much a part of our team…of our _family_… as any of the rest of us are.

"If it were someone else, another one of us that had the Stones and could use them, would you think _they_ were crazy and wrong? Or would you at least have the courtesy to hear them out? None of us, not one of us, gave her the chance to tell us what she was doing and why she was doing it. We just assumed that she was going to destroy the universe because she was messing around with the Stones. We never gave her the chance to explain herself.

"Even those of us that felt as she feels, and that agreed with her, we didn't give her the courtesy of asking her the first damned question about what was going on. We just made our snap decisions and then we leaped into the pot without looking to see if the fire was burning under it.

"Would you have done that if it'd been Tony, or Bruce, or even me? Probably not. So why do it to her? Wanda's powerful, all on her own. Terrifyingly powerful, if I'm being honest. Add the Stones to that, and her power makes Thanos' power look like lousy half dead batteries. And it makes her an extremely frightening individual if she were to lose control of that power, or decide to use that power indiscriminately.

"But she hasn't. She won't. I know this because I know Wanda. She's a good person and we should give her the same benefit of the doubt that we'd give any of the rest of us. She's one of _us._ Remember that the next time you decide to make a mistake that big again. How about we start making up for those mistakes by hearing her out before we just arbitrarily decide that she has to be stopped," Steve finished as he ran his hand back through his hair.

Even as Steve spoke, a whirling circle of pink light began forming and expanding near the group. Wanda released her friends and let them settle back to the ground as shadows started to emerge from the round opening in space. Three figures appeared from it as the opening shrank quickly and faded.

Thor, accompanied by a bald man in a wheelchair and a young woman with brightly tinted hair, stopped near them all. "It seems we have arrived late for the festivities. No one looks much the worse for wear, at least. I believe most of you know Professor Charles Xavier. This fair maiden is one of Charles' students, Clarice," he said as he eyed the group with a wary gaze.

A low murmur hummed about the group as they exchanged pleasantries with the new arrivals. Movement caught Rhodey's eye as Wanda moved closer to him, and she knelt next to where he was propped up with Tony's help.

The apprehension in his eyes blazed like the sun as she came within arm's reach of him. Then she surprised him. She gave him a light smile, a slight curling of the corners of her lips and she touched his shoulder. He stared at her in surprise and swallowed before he asked, "What…what are you doing?" It was obvious he thought she was going to harm him.

"I'm giving you a gift I had intended to give to you much sooner, but there were all the misunderstandings that distracted me. I'm sorry you don't understand what I'm intending to do, Rhodey. I truly wish you did, or would at least try to understand. But if you can't, I don't hold any ill will for you, my friend," she said as she slowly stood once more. She gave him the enigmatic smile once more before turning and walking away.

Rhodey looked up at Tony in shock, only for Tony to shrug with an expression as mystified as his own. It was then that he felt it. There was a sharp tingle in his lower back and his legs felt like he was being eaten alive by fire ants for a couple of seconds. Afterwards, the sensations melted away, and there was no more pain.

"Did she just paralyze me? I can't feel the pain anymore," he said in a near panicked voice. "It's just…there's nothing but…what the hell?" He gripped his thigh with his hand a moment, and then moved down his leg, doing it a couple more times, switched legs and started the squeezes again.

"What is it? What's wrong?" asked Scott. He had come over moments before to try and help Tony with Rhodey. Rhodey wasn't nearly strong enough and hadn't regained enough mobility to move without the exoskeletal apparatus that he normally used to walk. It stimulated the nerves in his back and assisted him with the movement of the lower part of his body.

Shock contorted Rhodey's face a moment, and then realization set in, a little at a time. "She…I don't believe it, I think she…she _fixed_ my back and legs," he half whispered in amazement. He cautiously tried moving his leg and felt none of the excruciating pain he expected to feel. The leg moved with perfect range and mobility.

"Holy shit," he breathed raggedly. "She fixed me, after I…I…I attacked her," he said in a completely confused and awestruck voice.

As Rhodey was marveling over his miracle, Wanda made her way back to the larger cluster of people. Xavier raised his brows and smiled lightly at her. "I understand that there's a rather convoluted misunderstanding here, concerning you and your intentions, my dear," he said in his smooth English accent.

She nodded slowly, and glanced around at the others before meeting his gaze once more. "Yes, you could say that, I suppose," she replied as other conversations around them fell silent. She felt a sudden apprehension. "Why do you ask? Do you fear me too?"

Xavier laughed softly and shook his head with slow confidence. "Not at all, my dear. Quite the opposite, I think. I've been asked to come and help the others understand your intentions and determine your state of mind, to assuage their trepidation," he replied.

Thor gave her an encouraging look and whispered, "I thought the best way to prove to everyone that you're not mad as a lot of them believe you to be was to have someone literally look into your mind and discover its true state, with your permission."

Xavier met her surprised expression and once more smiled at her, "Thor's correct, Wanda. I wish to help you answer the questions that everyone keeps asking, and prove to them definitively whether or not you are impaired, if you would give me your permission? You are under no pressure to give your permission, or to allow anything you would not wish to have occur."

Wanda was surprised by the request, but wasn't frightened by it. In fact, it may be exactly what was needed to end this sad conflict, just as Thor thought it might.

She drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her gaze never wavered from his as she answered, "You can do it. I don't mind. In fact, I think it might set everyone at ease, including myself. So, please Professor, I allow you to enter my mind and for you to probe anywhere you feel it necessary to. I have nothing to hide from you or anyone else."


End file.
